That is not a Moon Cat, Dungeon Crawler 4
by LordsFire
Summary: Job comes complete with limited magical abilities, comrades in arms, room and board, a series of increasingly dangerous villains to fight, and no pay. Also, you are a cat.
1. Big kitteh

AN: This is the continuation of the formerly-dead _Dungeon Crawling_ series. A substantial portion of this first chapter will have nerd-heavy exposition, but that drops off almost completely in later chapters. You have been warned.

((()))

Down the streets of Tokyo, a girl just on the verge of becoming a young woman, walked alone. She was tall for her age, having already reached the average height of a Japanese woman (5'2" or 157cm) at the age of fourteen, though her closed body language and shy demeanor made her appear smaller than she actually was. She carried a schoolbag in one hand, and a book in the other, which she was largely lost in, while her feet carried her home from school on auto-pilot. Mizuno Ami was, on the whole, the picture of an adolescent Japanese bookworm, though her male classmates would have described her face as 'cute' if it was out of a book long enough for them to see it much.

A pained yowl jolted Ami out of her literary reverie, and she looked down to discover that she'd just stepped on the tail of a...

_Is that a cat?_ Ami thought to herself as she stepped back, staring down at the huge lump of fur on the sidewalk, _I didn't think cats could have _red_ fur..._

Ami gasped as she realized that the red was _not_ the cat's natural coloration, at least, not on the _outside_ of its body. A swift mental review called the location of the nearest veterinary clinic to mind, and Ami hastily crouched down to check the cat's injuries. It had long, thick fur, so much so that she was forced to attempt to locate its wounds manually, and it twitched feebly as her hands gently explored its body. She was able to quickly locate numerous gashes along its (large) flanks, as well as a shard of crystal about the size of her pinky sticking out of its back.

And three of its legs were broken.

Reasonably certain that moving it wouldn't aggravate its injuries even further, Ami carefully picked the large cat up. Ami groaned as it feebly struggled against her grip, but that had far more to do with it being _heavy_, than its struggles.

"Don't worry, neko-chan," Ami whispered quietly into the wounded creature's ear as she began speed-walking towards the vet's, "I'll take care of you."

((()))

_System crashed, unmounting,.._

_Please wait._

_Please wait.._

_Please wait..._

_Alternate ISO found, mounting..._

_Please wait..._

((()))

"Five broken ribs, at least two breaks in each leg, nine different lacerations along his body, blood loss to the point where he's barely alive, not to mention the crystal shard protruding from his back."

The vet looked up from the list of injuries describing the cat, and offered Ami a sympathetic expression.

"I'm sorry miss Mizuno," He said quietly, "But we can't justify the expense that saving him would involve, not for a random stray. The only reason he's alive right now is that he's incredibly hardy, even for a _Meinkun_."

"_Meinkun?_" Amy asked, curiousity reflexively perking up at the foreign name, until she shook her head and forced herself to focus on what was more immediately important, "How expensive will treating him be?"

"It will cost anywhere from one hundred to four hundred thousand yen," The veterinarian said sympathetically, "It's-"

He broke off as Ami produced a credit card from within her purse, one that her mother had given her for use in case of emergencies.

"This has a credit limit of five hundred thousand yen, sensei," Ami said quietly, "Please treat him."

The Veterinarian paused for a moment, studying the girl carefully, taking in her simple, but high-quality clothing, her shy but determined body language, and the complete lack of twitchiness teens (such as his son) displayed when they were lying. Eventually, he decided that even if she was lying about the credit limit, he could afford a partial loss for someone so determined.

"I'll treat him," He said, "I have to warn you though, with how much blood he's lost, he may die anyways."

((()))

_ mounted._

_Install Y/N?_

_Installing..._

((()))

Mizuno Saeko was a busy, busy, _busy_ woman. She was an Oncologist, considered by many to be the best in Japan, and with how common cancer was amongst fatal diseases, her skills were _very_ much in demand, and every patient that reached her was _always_ in danger of death. There were many upsides to her work; lives saved, respect, gratitude, recognition, _very_ nice pay; but there were downsides as well, primarily in that she had far, _far_ too little time with her daughter.

She was still _pretty_ sure that she'd been in the apartment often enough to notice if they'd gotten a pet though.

"Ami?" Saeko asked as she stared at the basket (which looked more like a _tub_ as far as size went) with a bandaged lump of fur in it, "What is this?"

"It's a _meinkun_, Kaa-san," Her daughter replied, looking up from where she was carefully feeding the creature something from a bottle, "I found him on the sidewalk, badly injured."

Professional curiosity piqued, Saeko moved up beside her daughter, and began to carefully inspect the creature, gently feeling around the bandages, and taking note of the three splinted limbs. Between its long, bushy fur and twitching tail obscuring its general shape, it took her some time to realize that the creature was, in fact, a _cat_.

"This is a _cat?_" Saeko breathed, looking over at her daughter in shock, "I thought you said it was a raccoon!"

"Mm," Ami said, shaking her head, but keeping her concentration on the cat, "_Mainuh Kuneh_, it's an American breed of cat, one of the largest in the world."

"I knew Americans liked to make things bigger," Saeko said, staring down at the cat in disbelief, "But this is ridiculous!"

"Hai," Ami said with a nod, "The veterinarian, after weighing him, said that this _meinkun_ is probably going to set the record for size. Most _meinkun_ are smaller."

"How much smaller?" Saeko asked, moving around the table to take a seat across from her daughter.

"He's seventeen kilograms," Ami said, setting aside the bottle (which Saeko noticed was effectively empty, "Most _meinkun_ don't grow larger than eleven kilos."

"Most cats don't grow larger than _five_ kilograms, Ami," Saeko said flatly, "This thing is far too large to be a _cat_."

Ami's face fell, and Saeko had no idea why what she had just said had upset her daughter. She waited a moment while the younger Mizuno carefully lowered the cat's head back down into the basket, then reached out to grasp her daughter's hands.

"What's wrong Ami-chan?" She asked seriously.

"Ah," Ami said, valiantly trying to hold back tears, "The veterinarian said that the only reason he survived all the blood loss, was because he was so huge in the first place..."

Maternal instinct was a thing within Saeko that was often starved due to separation, but when it did strike, it struck with the force of a typhoon; Saeko swept around the table and wrapped her daughter into a hug in a matter of second. Ami dissolved into quiet tears; the girl had never seen death before, something that Saeko had deliberately engineered, and part of the reason that her work separated her from her daughter so much. Even as skilled as she was, Saeko was lucky if only a third of her patients died in a given year, due to the severity of the cases she had to deal with, and keeping her daughter away from the endless procession of soon-to-be dead that she dealt with every day was something she had bent great efforts and energies towards.

Saeko knew from painful personal experience, that encountering death for the first time was hard, and was glad that her daughter's first brush with it had both come from an encounter with an animal, and one that had been a _brush_, rather than an actual fatality. Eventually, her daughter began to calm down, and Saeko knew that there was one question she could ask her that would be _guaranteed_ to get her mind off of the unhappy subject.

"So Ami-chan," Saeko said calmly, "Tell me about this visit to the vet, and how you paid for it..."

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_Install complete. Press any key to run _

_._

_.._

…

_Welcome to Anima, Beyond Fantasy. Begin Character Creation, Y/N?_

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Life changed a little over the next few weeks for the Mizuno's. Ami spent less time at the library, and more at home, often reading while quietly stroking the recuperating Maine Coon. The cat spent most of its time unconscious, sleeping off its recovery, and most of the time Ami spent around it while it _was_ conscious, was spent feeding it. She got the impression that the cat disliked being fed, but it didn't actively resist her, and she was far too practical to consider not feeding it just because of an _impression_ of dislike.

It was also very clear to Ami that the cat was rarely, if ever, fully conscious. Its eyes were almost always dilated, and when it did move around, it seemed to be poorly coordinated, though it was hard to tell, with three of its legs stuck in splinted casts. Ami had called the veterinarian about it, but he had said that it was most likely that the cat's body was simply reacting to the heavy trauma by enforcing unconsciousness and low levels of activity, much like people who were very sick sleeping far more than normal. He told her that if the cat continued to be torpid after its legs had healed, then there may be cause for concern, but until then, not to worry about it.

Ami hoped that he was right, and in an attempt to make the cat feel less alone, made a habit of putting its basket beside her futon when she slept, in the hopes that it would feel less lonely.

One other substantial consequence that came from Ami's unintended encounter with a dying cat on the sidewalk, was that her mother decided that the appropriate consequence to Ami's large expenditure on the cat's behalf, was to put her in charge of the family's finances. It was both a punishment, in that it took up a fair portion of Ami's time, and an immense gesture of trust, in that Saeko trusted her daughter's sense of responsibility enough to manage the family's finances well. Ami had been nervous at first, but when she discovered just _how_ well her mother's job paid, and realized that due to her personal tastes being cheap (books), and her mother being far too busy for expensive hobbies, they had actually been spending less than half of her mother's income, even after taxes.

On the whole, Ami found that the changes made for a happier life, one that became happier still when the cat woke up.

((()))

_Well. Looks like the consequences of defeat were, this time, much more severe. Unlike the first fight against an epic opponent that I lost, _this _one, probably wisely, rather than just casting me across the world, cast me out into another reality altogether._

_A reality so different that the system by which my abilities were quantified was cast away, and a new one needed to be implemented. Just to make matters worse, at some point when I had been crossing timestreams, my consciousness (already damaged by what Dumbles had done to me), smashed right through alternate versions of myself, imparting a new bundle of knowledge, but turning my mind into near-mush in the process._

_There's probably a version or few of me in other universes, trapped in an asylum, gibbering mad._

_The upside to the new reality? The mechanics I'm being given to work with are from the _Anima, Beyond Fantasy_ system, which I like quite a bit more than I like D'n'D. The downside? One of the main _reasons_ I like the system more, is that it's _less broken.

_Less broken meaning it's going to be harder for me to break the game to keep myself (and others) alive and well. This is going to be _all kinds_ of not fun._

_First step; Race selection. And apparently, I'm a cat. Not allowed to change that either; the Fun has already begun!_

_Second step, Creation Point selection, the single most critical aspect of Anima character creation, and of the five CP I start with, four are already locked into choosing The Gift and Access to Psychic Disciplines. Oh, and I have the 'Mute' disadvantage; now the Fun has been doubled!_

_For those unfamiliar with the Anima system, Creation Points (sometimes also called Character Points) are something you only get at the start of the game, and never get again, unless you essentially ascend to godhood, which there is no game mechanic for ever achieving. A character starts with five (three in the original version), and can take up to three disadvantages to get more. To give an idea of scale, Mute is worth one point, Blind is worth two, and no disadvantage can give you more than two points. On the upshot of things, getting proper access to magic or Psychic Powers takes 2 CP, and that's just to get you _access_. You have to spend Development Points to actually get any use out of them._

_Considering that the Dragon's curse barring me from Magic and Psychic powers had doubtless survived the transition between worlds with me (seeing as how I was still stuck as a _cat_ too), that meant that 80% of my starting CP were completely wasted. Well, wasted for the time being; I'm an eternal optimist, one could say. Mute, while not being surprising to have as a cat, was one thing I really would have liked to do without. Of course, finding someone who could handle a talking cat without freaking out would have been annoying, but I'm sure I could have managed it eventually._

_That still left me with the task of determining _what_ to do with my available CP and disadvantages. Mentally 'touching' (have _you_ ever used a metaphysical interface?) the list of Disadvantages, I rapidly began paging through the available options. Some of them were not even worth considering, such as Blind (even if it was worth 2 points), while others, such as the one which gave a penalty to Initiative, were potentially very useful without being utterly crippling, but would completely remove tactical options, such as being faster than opponents of substantial power._

_Still, there were a few standbys that I had used before, and considered to be well-worth the costs involved. Unfortunately, the first of them, the 'Powerful Enemy' option, was unavailable. Unsurprising, considering that it was a setting/roleplay element. What _was_ available, however, was the list of Magical and Psychic disadvantages. One of my old standbys was in there as well; Psychic Consumption, which made you burn Life Points (HP in other systems) when you failed at using a Psychic Power, potentially enough to kill you if you failed _hard_. It was a disadvantage I used, because when I _did_ use Psychic Powers, I rarely used them in a way that left me vulnerable to 'shorting out,' and it was worth two CP._

_And, of course, if I never rid myself of the Dragon's Curse, then the disadvantage would never actually hurt me anyways. I was able to select the disadvantage, not a given as by Rules As Written (RAW) you could only use Magic/Psychic Disadvantages to gain more points of Magic/Psychic _Advantages_. Given that Psychic Disadvantages disappeared from my selection after that, I took it that whoever had come up with this implementation of the rules had decided that 'Access to Psychic Disciplines' as an Advantage counted as a Psychic Advantage even though with RAW, it was treated as a 'common' advantage._

_Unfortunately, the only Magical Disadvantages worth two CP were substantially more painful; Shamanism and Magical Blockage. Magical Blockage made it so that you were incapable of recharging magical power on your own, and had to instead drain it from other casters. Shamanism wasn't _too_ bad, in that it only made your spells require a material component, but for someone like myself who believed in readiness at all times, _and no longer had opposable thumbs, _it was a potentially critical weakness._

_...If I ever actually got access to magic back. Screw it, I _needed_ those points, I'd check to see if any of the Common Disadvantages were worth the risk, but if not, I'd take it._

_...And nope. The only Common Disadvantages worth 2 CP were blind, heavy initiative penalty, taking an XP penalty (which I did _not_ want to know what would do to my mind), or having a fatal disease. Looks like I'm taking Shamanism; the Initiative Penalty was the only other one even worth considering, and it was a _definite_ loss of tactical ability, as opposed to a _possible_ loss of tactical ability._

_Oh ho? What's this; I still have the disadvantage selections available? ...Well how about that, I can only _choose_ three Disadvantages, and I had no choice about Mute, which means that I can rules lawyer out a fourth Disadvantage. It doesn't make up for being trapped as a cat unable to speak, but it's nice to know that I'm not _completely_ without compensation._

_I had six CP available, so picking out a few advantages before the final disadvantage seemed appropriate. This was where things became tricky, because the Advantages selected, even beyond whether or not a character had access to Magic or Psychic Powers, determined how one was to build their character effectively, and I was blocked from _all_ of my favored paths to power._

_In Anima, there are multiple completely distinct mechanics, each of which is its own path to power. Generally speaking, the more powerful a mechanic, the harder to access it is, and the lower endurance it is, while the less powerful a mechanic is, the higher endurance and easier to access it is. This is a little bit of a simplification, as each power set also has its own 'specialization,' but it'll do for a basic understanding. Listed from least to most powerful with some versatility, here are the methods of developing power:_

_Straight up weapon/armor combat. All you have to do is put Development Points (DP) into attack, defense, and Wear Armor. If you can get higher quality/magical weapons and equipment, they sharply raise your combat ability. The only limit on this is literally fighting to physical exhaustion._

_Martial Arts. At lower levels, Martial Arts give you a few advantages to things like grappling,and otherwise more or less emulate the advantages of using higher-quality weapons. Further, they're so expensive to learn that unless you're a Tao, the class that is engineered around Martial Arts and only pays half DP cost for learning them, it's just not worth it. They also have steadily rising skill requirements for the higher tiers of the arts. The payoff though, is that at _higher_ levels, they turn you into a veritable juggernaut, with a body harder than steel, the ability to punch through tank armor, and the like. They also give bonus 'MK' for developing Ki abilities._

_Ki Dominion. The first, and weakest of the blatantly supernatural ability sets. It's also the least flexible, in that it does nothing except give you mobility, some bonuses to durability/speed, and straight attack/defense enhancements. As well as being able to shoot big old energy blasts, DBZ-style, but the fact remains that it is essentially a pure-combat focus. The advantages it has, is that you don't need to spend any CP to gain access to Ki abilities, and you don't have to worry about 'Projection' for using them effectively. One can also do summoning with Ki._

_Psychic Powers. Psychic Powers are generally what I recommend for a first time player who wants to use magic of some sort. The mechanic is fairly simple (though the book does a poor job of explaining it), and they have a nice balance of offense, defense, utility, and specialize in buffing. The primary advantage comes from the _very_ nice buffs you can get out of them, without losing the ability to deploy offensive firepower, the primary disadvantages are the need to spend CP in order to gain access to Psychic Powers in the first place, and the dependence on Projection._

_Magic. Magic is the most powerful mechanic within Anima by far; whereas Ki Dominion tops out with 'I turn a town into a crater in a few massive blasts,' and Psychic Powers top out with 'I freeze everything within X kilometers to near-absolute zero,' _Magic_ tops out with spells that _literally_ require you to be a god to cast. Because _those_ spells include things like 'I incinerate everything smaller than a moon within one Astronomical Unit of Earth,' or 'I turn someone else into a demigod.' Spells that _don't_ require you to be a god, just to be epic level and spend lots of character resources on Metamagic, then spend double Zeon (Anima's name for mana) to cast, do things like 'I create a sentient being from scratch,' or 'I can predict the major world events of the next century with high accuracy, or the detailed events of the next year.' I think you get the idea for the sheer scope of power within magic. Even without High or Divine magic, magic is the best source for healing, broad utility spells, and has a general bevy of buffs, debuffs, counterspells, and attack/defense as well. It can basically do everything that anything else can do, it just may be more costly. One can also do summoning with magic._

_It's important to note that there are two other 'sources of power' in the game as well. The first is skills, which everybody gets and uses (though Martial Artists are particularly dependent upon them), and cover the general range of abilities you'd expect most RPG skill systems to cover; knowledges, stealth, athletics, crafting skills, etc. (Notable as well is the Style skill, which is literally just 'whatever I did, I looked awesome doing it, even if I failed at it. This includes making it so that any scars you receive are 'cool' scars rather than 'ugly' scars.)_

_The second is Ki Abilities. These are subtly different than Ki Dominion; you need a couple of these (Use of Ki, Ki Control) in order to use Ki Dominion abilities at all, but from there, they _mostly_ function as an array of low-end buffs that are nice for anybody to use. They include the array of abilities you see in less blatantly-supernatural Shonen martial arts series, such as making you slightly supernaturally tough, age more slowly, be able to run up walls, get by with less sleep/food/drink, etc. In the expansion book specifically engineered for Martial Artists and Ki Domnion users, it added a few more blatantly supernatural abilities (which are really expensive), such as Shape-Shifting, 'Multiplication of Bodies,' which is basically Shadow Clones from Naruto (though you're not going to make more than 3-3 dozen even at high levels), and buffing your core stats._

_Something that's important to note, is that you pay for both Ki Abilities, and Ki Dominion techniques, with something called Martial Knowledge; _every_ class gets at least some Martial Knowledge for free at each level. Warrior-types get 25, skill monkeys usually get 20ish, casters get 10, the Tao (martial artist class) gets 30, and the Technician, which is intended to be the 'Ki caster' class, gets 50. This means that even characters who don't bother with trying to develop them at all, will pick up a few Ki Abilities as they go, and possibly even Ki Dominion techniques (though for regular casters that's highly unlikely)._

_Every class also gets a progression of Psychic Points for free. For Psychic classes it's one per level, for non-Psychics it's one every three (which is functionally irrelevant), but the point remains that the game designers saw Ki Dominion and Psychic Powers _so much less powerful_ than Magic, that they give you some of the other two for _free_ to counter-balance it._

_Further, unless a caster is using pathetic, podunk spells, they'll be lucky to cast more than four to nine spells in a day (spells scale, as you get to higher levels, you cast more powerful, more expensive versions), and that's only if they're willing to exhaust their entire reserves. Which then usually take a _week_ or so to recharge. Magic is _powerful_, unmatchedly so, but unlike the people who made D'n'D 3.5, the game designer(s) for Anima _succeeded_ in making the most powerful pieces on the board, with the lowest combat endurance, and thus the need to be protected. A mage _can_ use certain methods and spells to make themselves higher-endurance, but in doing so they generally lower themselves to the same throw-weight as other mechanics havwe available._

_I could go on, and on, and on, but as I'm not going to be using magic or psychic powrs, I'll stop here for now._

_The original thought behind this spur, was what Advantages to purchase. Not counting magical and Psychic Advantages, CP can buy you anything from durability akin to light kevlar just in your skin, enhanced resistance to magic, psychics, disease, poison, and general physical damage, to better luck, an affinity for animals, skills being easier to learn, or just naturally gaining ranks in skills every level. They can _also_ be used to make your supernatural energy reserves recharge faster (6, 12, or 60 times faster for Ki and Psychic users, 4 times faster for Magic users; again, relative power levels), or 'buy' you a supernatural heritage, meaning that one of your ancestors was an elemental, a Kami, or the like, and you inherited extra-normal abilities from them._

((()))

_My favored path to power in Anima thus far has been Psychic/Martial Artist, using Psychic Buffs to augment the combat capabilities of a martial artist. As Magic and Psychic abilities are both directly blocked for me, and being a _cat_ I can't learn human martial arts, I am _entirely_ barred from my preferred form of character building. Being mute (and, again, a _cat)_ makes social skills largely useless to me, having no opposable thumbs knocks out most of the rest of the skills, leaving me with essentially two meaningful options; stealth skills, and Ki Powers._

_I'm about to become a LaserCat. If the internet is around in this reality, I'm probably doomed to become a Lolcat; I'm not sure how I feel about that._

_That aside, I realized that I needed to see what stats I had been assigned before going too far into Ki abilities, as that would pretty heavily affect what I was going to do with them. A mental 'push' directed me away from Advantage selection, and into my Stats display._

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 11

Agility: 11

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 11

Power: 11

Willpower: 11

Perception: 11

Appearance: 11

_Well. For those of you unfamiliar with Anima, and familiar with D'n'D, no that is _not_ a craptacularly mediocre stat set. 'Normal human' in Anima is _five_, and 'maximum human potential,'_ _not counting supernatural, is _ten_. Twenty is the top of the scale, and at twenty, you gain abilities like Perception giving you total awareness of the world around you, down to the atomic level, Agility (which determines your move speed) allowing you to instantly arrive at any destination you desire, etc, etc. Starting with elevens in every stat is a bit like starting with a 22 or a 24 in everything in D'n'D._

_(Appearance is pure asthetics, and has no attached mechanics. I was, apparently, going to be a very handsome kitty though.)_

_Looks like my 'Paragon' boosts have held over, in some form or another. Those stats are particularly relevant to Ki Dominion because a character's Ki pool is determined by their stats; everything except Intelligence and Perception give them 1 point of Ki per point in that stat up to 10, and 2 points for each point past 10. Meaning that I was sitting on 72 Ki to start with, whereas an average human started with around 30, and the amount of Ki necessary to make a decent stab at leveling a small city, was about 110. If you burned it all in a single attack and passed out afterwards._

_Not a bad start, on the whole. I just wish I knew what kind of world I was starting out in, so that I knew what kind of firepower I'd need to be packing. Ah well; I at least know some of what I'm working with, so it's _finally_ time to start picking advantages!_

_3 CP for Ki Recovery 3; giving me one Ki Point regenerated per Ki stat per minute, rather than per hour. For offensive power, that's roughly the difference between being a muzzle-loader musket from the 1800's, and being a modern light machine gun. The muskets in the civil war actually packed some pretty decent stopping power, but a SAW's rate of fire was murderously higher._

_I considered buying 'Quick Reflexes' to give myself a faster response time (initiative), but while it was nice, I didn't think that +25 Initiative was worth the CP, especially when every branch of power except conventional weapons gave a means of raising your initiative by substantially more._

_Good Luck was always useful; it didn't have a description when I 'paged' over to itl in the actual game system it made it harder for you to fumble (critically fail), but I didn't know how it would translate in a 'real life' implementation of such a thing._

_Artifact was tempting, I was kind of surprised to see it there. You could spend 1, 2, or 3 points on it. It was largely GM discretion that determined what kind of item you'd get out of it, but as magical items were extremely rare in the game, it was the only reliable way to get one. GM's I'd played with in 'real life' scaled it from a useful trinket at 1 point, to an airship with lightning cannons at 3. Like Good Luck, I considered it as a definite possibility._

_Switching over to the Bloodlines available from Dominus Exxet, the book on Ki Powers and Martial Arts, I was uncertain how to proceed._

_Hm..._

_There were affinities for each of the elements; none of them particularly interested me, as Ki Dominion didn't use element-aligned attacks, making them largely useless to me._

_Eyes of Death, an ability that let you see something along the lines of the supernatural threads of fate that bound a being together, and attack them directly. Potent, but it cost 2 CP, and I didn't really want to spend that much on something that basically devolved to nothing more than 'break things better.' It was cool, but not sufficiently utilitarian._

_Eyes of The Soul, an ability that lets you see the supernatural and Ki energy that flows through both living beings, and the inanimate parts of the world. _That_ was a high-utility ability; it had no direct combat applications, but it literally let you see the world in a whole new way, let you locate things by supernatural rather than mundane senses, _and_ functionally let you see in the dark. I could work with that, especially since it only cost 1 CP, likely due to the lack of direct combat applications. A tentative yes._

_Tsukiyomi, the Legacy of the Moon. This was one of the most interesting bloodlines, and one of the ones I'd long since wanted to try. It provided a bonus anywhere from miniscule, to respectably sizeable, on _every single thing_ that a character did, dependent upon the phase of the moon. The darker the moon was, the larger the bonus, to the point where a New Moon made you heal faster, as well as capable of surpassing natural physical limitations, and an _Eclipse_ did crazy-awesome things. The downside was that aside from during an Eclipse, these bonuses were only available during the night, meaning that if most of the action in a campaign took place during the day, you were SoL. Still, it only cost 1 CP, so not bad._

_Uruboros, the serpent of time, was pretty worthless, it made it a bit easier to catch people by surprise, but not enough to be worth 1 CP._

_Blood of the Great Beasts let you pick from a selection of powers usually only available to monsters, but they explicitly excluded pretty much all the good stuff, so it wasn't worth taking unless you really wanted wings, claws, or the like. And I am a cat, so claws=yes already. Unless I'm in a fantasy setting, I doubt wings would be a good idea, and even then, it'd ruin any chance for social stealth._

_Eyes of Destiny; basically the Sharingan if it wasn't broke-ass shit. It lets you predict your foes movements and get a bonus in combat, but you have to use it for a while to start seeing the patterns, the longer you watch them, the bigger the bonus. It also lets you copy their Ki techniques; you still have to pay MK to learn them, but less. It might've been worth it at 1 CP, but at 2 CP, unless you're fighting bosses you can spy on regularly as well as Dominion users, it's just not worth it._

_Eternal Blood. Now _there_ is an example of a Determinator's dream. It makes it so it's about four times as hard to kill you dead, as removing the need for such puny things as 'a heart' or 'a non-severed spine' to keep on fighting. You do take penalties for accumulating massive tissue damage, but a sword through the head won't be any more impediment to you than a sword through the bicep (arguably less as no muscles will be damaged), and you will be able to keep fighting literally until you drop dead. Which is stupidly_ _hard to do; you're basically as indestructible as villains from slasher movies. It might seem cheap at 1 CP, but it's only any good when you're getting the shit kicked out of you; if you win your fights with only modest damage taken, it's never going to matter at all. What I've used it for in the past, is being able to fake being dead when somebody stuck a sword through my character's head, then walked off assuming the fight was over._

_Tempting, _very_ tempting, considering how permanent death would be in this situation, but I couldn't commit to it when there were so many other useful things available._

_The Blood of Orochi. If you've seen the manga/anima/fighting game settings with characters who have this, you know exactly what it means: Berserker Rage. Not interested, regardless of cost._

_Existence Eaters. Lets you literally suck the ki out of something or someone, the problem is that it only lets you suck up so much energy per day, and the amount just isn't large enough to be worth it for 2 CP. It _would_ be amusing to start sucking the life out of people when _they_ hit _me_, but I can't afford to pay that much when I'm already loaded down with Magic and Psychic Powers that I can't use._

_Venomous Essence; made you a very, _very_ poisonous person. As in skin contact would poison people. I'm actually a person who has a deep-seated hunger for physical affection, something I didn't get much of IRL after I stopped living in the same house as my family (we were big on hugs), and I was _not_ giving up the opportunities being a cat would give me in this regard in order to poison people. I was going to be a fluffy ball of cuddliness and invade every lap I reasonably could, dammit._

_Natural Weapons. Gain claws/fangs/etc, or make them better. Actually reasonably balanced mechanically, but I didn't need to invest CP in something that served no greater purpose than 'break things better.'_

_Blood of the Dead; makin' bloody effigies of yourself. Not worth the likely social stigma it would result in. At least, not when it cost CP, if it was just a spell to learn or something, it'd be worth having as a backup ability in the arsenal._

_Blood of Kami. An affinity for either a particular type of natural terrain, or for a given weapon. The first wasn't worth it when I didn't know where I'd be waking up at, the latter was just another way of being better at breaking things._

_Blood of the Dragon; gave nothing in and of itself, just access to a certain Ki Discipline later on. Not worthless, but extremely unlikely choice when I had so many other options available._

_There _should_ have been an option called 'Latent Blood' available at the end of the list, but judging by the fact that I hadn't been required to pay a CP or level to Bloodline abilities suggested that someone had been fixing the (RAW) overpriced abilities anyways._

_Unfortunately, that made it decision time, as I couldn't buy 'Latent Blood' and hope to purchase the abilities later instead of _now_. Don't you just love knowing that your life or death may depend on a decision you literally _cannot_ make with adequate information?_

_Yeah, neither do I._

_Normally, I'd end up spending a _big_ chunk of CP on buying one of the auto-raise skill abilities, but that was oriented towards meeting the skill requirements of Martial Arts, or being a Smith; as things stood, I expected to be able to gain necessary skills through real-life experience, and martial arts were (unfortunately) out of my reach, so I decided to forgo those altogether._

_I took Eyes of the Soul, Tsukiyomi, _and_ Eternal Blood. Utility, heavy situational advantage, and durability, all tidily met. That left the selection of one more flaw, and whatever then whatever advantages I could buy with the new CP._

_I seriously, seriously, _seriously_ considered taking the initiative penalty for 2 CP, but the saying that combat is 'initiative and preparation' doesn't only apply to gaming. It also applies to real life; anybody who's an experienced tactician or strategist, anyone who's read and _understood_ The Art of War can tell you, responding with speed is _critical.

_So instead, I took Serious Addiction for 1 CP, and applied it to 'cuddling' (it was something I already intended to do a lot of anyways), and then turned around and spent that last CP on buying a +10 per level bonus on Sleight of Hand. Because it'd be damn useful if I ever regained human form, and a cat that can steal things right from under your nose is both damn funny, and possibly critically useful._

_Sending in an unnoticed pet to filch the guard's keys or the like could make all the difference in the world. Whatever world I ended up in._

_A few seconds after I'd made my selection, I became aware of the world around me as something more than a vague set of sensations for the first time since I'd been banished from Fuyuki._

((()))

Unfortunately for Ami, the first time the cat came to full consciousness, was when it was sleeping beside her futon, and she was sleeping _in_ her futon.

"Rwearr?" The cat rumbled, and Ami jolted awake, unused to sounds of any sort in her sleeping space.

It took her several seconds to work through the fuzz of sleep, but she soon noticed that there was a rustling sound from behind her, and turned to see that the cat was trying to pull itself upright within its basket.

"Don't, neko-kun," Ami said, worry clear in her voice as she reached out to lay her hands on the cat, "You'll hurt yourself."

The instant that she touched it, it stopped trying to move and turned its head to face her; glowing green eyes stood out clearly, even in the darkness of her room. Ami gasped as for the first time, she beheld clear awareness in the cat's gaze, and something that hinted at a level of intelligence which surprised her.

"Rrrrr," The cat rumbled, its deep purr reaching a lower tone than her voice was capable of, and some ingrained instinct, a vague part of Ami's mind thought it was cultural, impelled her to start petting it.

That was the first of many nights in which Ami ended up sharing her pillow with a cat; within a week she'd get a second pillow, as the cat was simply too large to comfortably share with.

((()))

_I let the girl keep her arm wrapped around me as she drifted back to sleep. Judging by my surroundings, I was in a modern society of some sort or another, and going off of her oriental features and the fact that she was sleeping on a futon rather than a bed, I was somewhere in Japan. Given the sorts of places I'd found myself in before, that almost _definitely_ meant Tokyo. Because 90% of all Anime and Manga ever seems to take place in Tokyo._

_Knowing that much at least, before I had to pick _all_ of my character stats, was damn good. The next thing I had to pick was a class, and I chose one that I _never_ would have picked in an Anima game where I wasn't hamstrung with a three-fold curse: Technician._

_As I've mentioned, Technician is the class for Ki Dominion users, the problem is that it kind of sucks. Each class gets four things automatically per level; Life Points, Initiative Bonus, Martial Knowledge, and Psychic Points. Most classes balance to +15 or +20 Life Points/Initiative Points per level, with the heavy-magic classes getting less, and the Weaponmaster, the least magical class, getting +25. The Technician gets +10 total, 5 to Life, 5 to Initiative. Painfully low considering that you're almost certain to engage in at least some melee, unlike other 'caster' classes._

_As to MK, as I mentioned before, the Technician gets 50 per level, easily the most. The problem with this is that the Tao can average about the same, because learning Martial Arts gives you MK as well; this is what really makes the Technician class mostly obsolete in my opinion, because the Tau gets more LP per level, and Martial Arts are literally the perfect complement to Ki powers. Psychic Points are pretty much irrelevant for a straight Dominion user, and the Technician only gets 1 per 3 levels anyways, so it hardly matters._

_Aside from those four things that each class gets at every level, the Anima system in many ways actually behaves like it _doesn't_ have a class system. Rather than getting a list of abilities you either gain as you level, or get access to, Anima classes instead tell you how much things _cost_ depending on your class. _Any_ class can buy magic, Psychic, Ki, or mundane abilities, the only stipulation is that you have to pay more for it if it's outside of your class's focus, and you're capped at either 50% or 60% of your DP spent on that field, 60% if it's your class's specialty._

_There are three 'primary ability' fields, Combat Ability, Supernatural Ability, and Psychic Ability. As the names suggest, the first is skill at hitting things and dodging them, though it also includes Ki powers, the second is skill with magic, and the third is Psychic Powers._

_A Technician _does_ have two other advantages over a Tao. First, it pays _dirt_ cheap for getting more Ki reserves and being able to focus (accumulate) Ki for actual use more quickly, and second, it gets +5 to attack for free each level. The Tao's weakness is that even though it's an exclusively melee class, unlike every other fighter-archetype class in the game (and a couple non-fighter archetypes), it gets no bonus to Attack, Block, or Dodge. It makes up for most of that lack with Martial Arts, but it has to pay for those Martial Arts to replace the bonus._

_Game balance, it's a thing._

_'Secondary Abilities' in the game also have their costs determined by what class you're in. They're basically skills, so I'll be calling them Skills rather than Secondary Abilities, it's just easier. Skills are grouped into seven categories, Athletics, Social, Perceptive, Intellectual, Vigor, Subterfuge, and Creative. The difference between Vigor and Athletics is generally the difference between an actual athlete, and someone who just does body-building; Creative is Singing, Dancing, Art, Smithing, and Slight of Hand for some reason, while the rest should be pretty obvious. The 'average' cost for each skill is 2 DP per rank, while something your class is crap at will cost 3, and something it's specialized with is 1 DP per rank. Some classes get a specific skill at reduced cost rather than an entire field, usually only 'Prowler' (skill-monkey) archetype classes get a whole field at reduced cost, and Prowlers also usually get per-level bonuses to 3-6 skills._

_It all works out reasonably well; one of the important things to note is that unlike Primary Abilities, there's no cap on how much DP you can spend on a skill at any point. It's one of the big things I prefer about Anima to D'n'D; when you specialize in a skill, you can _really_ specialize. I'm a cat; I could sink all my starting DP into Stealth skills and be impossible to find. There _are_ hard-caps on how good you can be at a skill without becoming outright supernatural in how well you do with them, but I'll get into those later._

_All that said and done, a 1st level character starts with 600 Development Points (DP), and gains 100 additional DP thereafter. I was reading as level 1, and I didn't know whether I'd need skills, combat ability (cats are territorial with each other even if I didn't have to fight anything human-sized), or what, so I started off simple. A character can directly spend up to 10% of their total DP on MK, so I picked up an extra 60 MK, giving me 110 to start with, and then mentally groaned._

_There are two Ki abilities you _have_ to purchase before you can do pretty much anything else worthwhile. Use of Ki, and Ki Control; I'd _thought_ they cost 30 MK and 20 MK, but my memory was off, and they were 40 MK and 30 MK. Meaning even starting with a huge amount of MK, I only had 40 to _actually_ work with. Which sucked._

_I bought the two, then let myself drift off to sleep; cats need something like 15 hours of sleep a day, so I needed to get some rest while I still could..._

((()))

The next day, to Ami's great delight, the cat was aware and active; it tried to drag itself across the carpet after her when she left her room, so she carried its basket out to set on the kitchen table while she prepared breakfast and her lunch. It wasn't easy for her to carry the large cat basket, but it wasn't altogether unmanageable, and she was happy to have the company as she worked in the kitchen.

Every time she turned to look at the cat, its eyes were tracking her, and after a while, it began chittering at her, and making batting motions with its paws. Ami thought it was adorable, and it made her smile as she worked.

((()))

_The girl is cute enough; seeing her in full light makes it clear she's skinny and somewhere early in puberty. Almost certainly a shojo or shounen anime setting then. My ability to perceive colors since waking up as a cat isn't that great, but I'm pretty sure her hair is blue, which makes anime settings pretty much a certainty; she could be from any number of shows, though short hair cuts down the number she could be a main character in._

_Part of me hopes she's someone from Nanoha, because I'm a big fan of the Hot Blooded, but I can't think of any characters that she matches up with._

_Hey, what's she doing with that bottle?_

((()))

Ami noticed that the cat seemed to be downright _sulking_ while she fed it, and gathered that it found bottle-feeding to be demeaning. Since it was properly awake and could probably chew and swallow, she decided to call up the vet and ask if it would be safe for her to pick up some cat food, so that it could feed itself, more or less.

((()))

_That was humiliating. It looks like the girl's off to school now though; considering that she's wearing the iconic outfit, it's not like there's much else she could be doing with a bento and a book bag._

_...And now I appear to be 'home alone' for the day, with three legs in casts (incredibly annoying that), and I'm stuck on top of the kitchen table. Great. I guess I'll be practicing my catnapping skills._

((()))

Approximately two hours after her daughter left for school, an exhausted Saeko Mizuno dragged herself out of bed, and staggered into the kitchen, where she dug unto the breakfast her daughter had left out for her. She didn't even notice that it was room temperature; her daughter wasn't a stellar cook, but could (unsurprisingly) serve a decent version of anything that could be made through simply following a recipe precisely.

It wasn't until after she'd cleaned her plate that she noticed that the cat was on the table again, and it was _looking_ at her.

"...Hello?" She said, feeling a little self-conscious for reasons she wasn't entirely clear on.

"Reowr," The cat replied, before pulling its good paw out of the basket, and starting trying to drag itself over to her.

"I have no idea what you're doing," Saeko said, "But seeing as how you're a cat, I'm willing to bet that you're up to no good."

"Rooowr," The cat said, and finally managed to get a good enough grip on the tabletop to actually begin dragging itself (and the basket it was in) towards Saeko.

"_Really_," Saeko said, rolling her eyes in resignation, before reaching out to lift the cat out of its basket; she almost said something rather sarcastic, but it began purring as soon as she had it in a secure grip, a deep, soothing rumble pressed right up against her chest.

"Well," She said a bit more cautiously, "Maybe you'll be good company after all."

((()))

_I must have woken up on a Monday. The next week was _indescribably_ boring. I was stuck in the cat basket most of the time, because Ami and her mother were out of the house most of the time, school and work between the two of them. I was _glad_ that cats sleep fifteen hours a day, because I would probably have done something stupid to break the monotony otherwise. When Ami was home, she was very good company, pulling me into her lap and petting me pretty much whenever she was awake. Granted, she was also reading, but simple companionship was worlds better than isolation and boredom._

_Three important facts came to my attention during that week; first, I was in the Sailor Moon setting. That was both excellent, and horrifying. Excellent, because it's a freaking Shojo manga, which means that cats are nigh-immortal, and if the setting stays at all true-to-type, the villains are largely bungling buffoons utterly incapable of sound strategy or tactics. If it's _not_ subject to the tropes which define mahou shojo (many of which it codified in western perception), then I'm going to be stuck in a setting where cosmic horrors with no remorse and vast armies of minions are out to kill/enslave/crush/transform mankind._

_I have read Sleeping With the Girls. Yay._

_At least I've been stuck in with the genius girl, rather than one of the flighty girly-girl types. That's an advantage._

_The second important fact that came to light, was that I was wrong about Ki Control. It's not needed for anywhere near as many things as I thought, if the 'HUD' I see the world through is right. I'd still need it eventually anyways, as outright Ki Dominion powers require it, but it's annoying to realize that my memories were off._

_The third, and least pleasant realization, is that I have a compulsion to _groom_ myself. And I'm a longhair; I haven't coughed up a hairball yet, but I'm pretty sure it's inevitable, as I find myself absently licking my fur when I come out of a bout of deep thought._

_Hopefully, these damn casts will come off soon, and I'll be able to get out and _do_ something._

((()))

"Well, Mizuno-san," The veterinarian said, "I'm happy to tell you that the cat seems to be on the way to a full recovery."

"That's great sensei!" Ami beamed as she watched the vet carefully remove the casts from the cat's legs, "...I haven't seen any messages in the paper or anything, but has someone come looking for him?"

"No," The vet said, shaking his head as he removed the last cast, "No one claiming ownership has shown up at any of the clinics in Tokyo."

"_Any_ of them?" Ami said, somewhat bewildered, "There is a network for such things?"

"Indeed," The vet said, nodding gravely as he turned to look at Ami, "This cat is a purebred _Meinkun_, and such animals can be very valuable, especially if they're well-formed enough to be show animals."

Confused, Ami turned to look at the cat; it stood up, and for the first time since she had first seen the creature, she was able to see what the cat looked like when it stood upright, and its fur was not pulled or pushed out of place by bandages. It was, as she had already known, a veritable giant of a cat, its fur predominantly black and gray, with subtle orange undertones around the ruff of its neck, which fluffed out into an almost mane-like shape. On the whole, it was a _gorgeous_ animal, with with a nearly regal bearing as it gazed up at Ami with intelligent eyes.

After regarding her for a moment, it padded lithely across the examination table that the vet had placed it on, then reared up backwards once it reached the edge, standing almost fully upright. With the table boosting its height, it was actually taller than her, and Ami's eyes widened in shock as it suddenly tilted forward, planting its forepaws on her shoulders, and gazing directly into her eyes from just inches away.

For what seemed like an eternal moment, Ami felt as though the cat were gazing into her very soul.

((()))

_She still has the wonder of a child, and enough courage not to flinch away from the unknown. She'll do._

((()))

Then the cat licked her on the tip of her nose, Ami giggled, and the moment was broken.

((()))

AN: The entire first arc of this story is completed, and I intend to post weekly until it's all up. Hopefully by then I'll have one of my other projects to a reasonable level of completion. If you're too impatient to wait, head over to the Spacebattles CrW forum where I've already posted the whole thing, complete with pictures.


	2. Like herding cats

AN: Whoops! Missed my update time by about twelve hours; I suppose this is what happens when I get out of the habit.

((()))

_Tokyo is a big city. Now that I can actually move about, life is actually pretty good. Eating cat food isn't the greatest, but I've lived off of less-pleasant stuff. Maybe I'll try hunting some time while Ami and her mother are out; exploring the city is fun, and since my memory is just shy of perfect these days, I'm compiling a mental map of the city as I go._

_I'm still trying to decide whether or not I should try to write with my paws or something in order to let Ami and her mother know I'm at a human level of sapience, but for now, I'm holding off until blatantly supernatural things become a part of her life._

((()))

Ami hadn't been so happy since her father had left her and her mother. She had a friend, albeit one who couldn't talk, but her new cat accompanied her everywhere she went; it sat with her when she read, sometimes looking over her shoulder at her textbooks, it puttered around the kitchen while she cooked, sat on windowsills outside the library while she was within, and walked with her to school. The second school day after its casts had come off, it had also started showing up at school when she left, and walking home with her as well, something that she found to be particularly endearing.

The only complaint she had sometimes, was that whenever she didn't have both hands occupied by a task, it would butt its head against her until she started petting it. It seemed unusually persistent from what her general understanding of cats was, so she decided to do some more detailed research into its particular breed.

((()))

_Ami's taken up to reading about Maine Coon's lately, so I assume that is the breed I have taken the form of. It would make sense, given that the mechanics would have me be a large cat, and they're the largest breed I'm aware of. Unfortunately, it appears to be too early in the nineties for her to be using the internet as a meaningful research tool, but it's easy enough to read library books over her shoulder when she's at home._

_I'm kind of surprised, given my augmented intellect and senses, that she still appears to be a faster reader than me. I've also decided it's time to pick up the Ki Abilities necessary to use Eyes of the Soul now, as there's no telling when I'll have the free time to acclimate myself to viewing the world in an entirely different way once the shit hits the fan._

_And it will. It always does._

((()))

"I really need a name for you," Ami said as she looked back and forth between the book on show pets she'd found, and the cat curled up half on her lap, half on the couch, "I just can't find anything that quite seems to _fit_ though."

It had taken her some time to find a book in the Juuban library that had information on Maine Coon's; they weren't exactly a local species, and it wasn't until she'd looked into material on show animals, rather than pets, that she'd found anything of detail.

"Maine Coon's are known as 'gentle giants,'" Ami read aloud, as the cat purred in response to her gentle stroking of its flank, "Are easy to train due to high intelligence," Ami paused curiously for a moment as the cat snorted, "And are known to be very loyal to their families. They tend to be cautious but not hostile around strangers, and are independent rather than clingy. Main Coon's are rarely lap-cats," Ami giggled for a moment as she glanced down at her large lap-warmer before continuing, "But their gentle disposition tends to suit them well towards socializing with other cats, other pets, and children. They are also well known for being a very vocal species, particularly 'talking back' to their owners."

Ami paused again to look down at the cat, and after she had been silent for a few seconds, it rolled over so that it was laying belly-up on her lap.

"Nryawr?" It said inquisitively, and Ami giggled, smiling down at it, starting to rub its belly with her free hand before turning a page in her book, and continuing.

"Physically," Ami said, "Maine Coons have a rectangular body shape, with a broad chest and solid musculature. Averaging in weight from seven to eleven kilograms for males and five to seven kilos for females, they are one of the largest breeds of domestic cat in the world. They can be anywhere from twenty-five to forty centimeters in height, and as long as one hundred and twenty centimeters."

Ami paused to look down at the large cat monopolizing much of her lap.

"I'm pretty sure you're bigger," Ami said thoughtfully, "I should have asked the vet to measure you, but now I suppose I'll have to do it myself."

((()))

_This may be slightly awkward, but I must admit to being curious as to just how large I am myself. I know that in Anima characters that are human at base tops out somewhere around eight feet (~2.5 meters); I'd like to see how that translates into cat-size._

((()))

"One hundred and forty-one centimeters?" Ami said, staring at the cat stretched out alongside her measuring tape in disbelief, "That's a full fifteen percent larger than you're supposed to be! You probably hold some sort of record..."

((()))

_Well, that answers that question. I am a big, powerful kitty; let's just hope that I can develop something more than mundane teeth before the first Youma shows up..._

((()))

Time passed. Ami settled into a happy rhythm of life wherein she wasn't so alone as she had been before. It was nice to have 'someone' to talk to, even if what she had come to think of as _her_ cat couldn't return the favor; it was far better than the wholly solitary existence she'd had before she had found the cat. As an added bonus, it didn't interfere with her reading time, content to either lay there and let her stroke it with her off hand, read alongside her, or both. She wasn't quite sure what the cat found so interesting about text on a page, but she certainly didn't mind the company.

She did notice that it seemed to have an odd interest in one of the other students at her school, one Tsukino Usagi, but she supposed it might seem that way to her because the girl had a tendency to run in late, leave the school grounds as soon as possible, and just generally be a very... _noticeable_ person. It was hard for Ami to miss the girl with the long blond ponytails herself.

And so the weeks marched on, and Ami was happy.

((()))

_I am going to _die_ of boredom. Exploration is only interesting for so long, and just about all of my other native interests have been scuttled. I can only really read what someone else is reading, computers aren't anything much to speak of yet, I can't really use arcade games, and most of the Japanese movies in theater frankly do not interest me. It's easy enough to slip into any of the theaters in the area, especially after I spent some DP on stealth skills, but there's too much cultural disconnect for me to find interest in most of them. Maybe if there was a Studio Ghibli title in theater, but even then, that'd only be good for so many hours before it got old, and it seems like it'd be such a shame to wear myself out on one of their productions._

_I think I'm going to take up hunting after all, mostly just to pass the time._

((()))

Ami usually did not pay much attention to the gossip that ran through the school, but when word came around that one of her classmates had been attacked, she took notice. That the attack had happened in the girl, Osaka Naru's, _home_, outright frightened Ami, and when she left school that day, she found herself rather desperately clinging to her feline companion.

((()))

_It's official. I've just realized that the pan-dimensional brain-smash has had more effects on me than I'd thought; I'm insane. I've been here for almost three months, knowing the basics of what kind of foes I would be fighting, and what preparation have I made for it?_

_I haven't tracked Naru, Youma-magnet extraordinaire, back to her home so I'll know where she lives._

_I don't know where Usagi lives, though I do have her scent._

_I purchased, but then _didn't develop_ the Eyes of the Soul and attendant abilities._

_I haven't meaningfully trained up either my attack _or_ defense skills, and I haven't even toyed around with what I _could _buy with the rest of my MK, much less actually bought anything._

_This is a Serious Problem._

((()))

_I have refocused my attention on memory cohesion and regaining the ability to consistently focus on something. One of the first things I discovered is that I am wearing a collar with a nametag. I cannot describe adequately how disturbing it is to realize that someone has wrapped something around your neck, and you somehow did not even consciously notice it. As I cannot speak coherently, I do not even have the luxury of asking how long it has been there._

_Joy._

((()))

Time continued to pass, and Ami noticed a few oddities about her cat's behavior. First, he always left the room when she started changing, and second, careful examination revealed that he wasn't just staring at the text of her books, his eyes were actually tracking through them as though he were _reading_ them. She began to honestly wonder if his unusually large cranium held an unusually capable brain; she knew that some children with heads roughly his size were capable of reading, and he _had_ in all ways shown himself to be an extremely intelligent cat.

Unfortunately, Ami didn't know of any way to tell if her cat had an unusual (beyond unusually large) brain without popping his skull open to have a look. She considered developing a series of intelligence tests designed to work on cats, then realized that if her suspicions were correct, her cat could _read_, so she could just jump straight to direct communication in the first place...

((()))

_So I finally spent some DP on skills, and investing a little in Notice, helped me notice when my trains of thought would be derailed, and I'd miss out on important things. Useful; it makes my brain-cripplage manageable, even if I haven't overcome it. With that done, it's been difficult, but I've been able to actually work around some more complete rational structures, and I've come to a conclusion:_

_Ki Dominion is even worse than I thought. If you want a fully-developed tree of Ki techniques, you have to spend about eight levels learning them all, and then you've got about _five_ total abilities. For eight levels. A dedicated level _one_ Wizard can have **seventy-five**__spells. It's absolutely absurd. So, I've decided to look into the 'Impossible Weapons' instead; _some_ of them should be usable with a non-humanoid body._

_...Now what's this that Ami's trying to show me?_

_Oh. Oh my..._

((()))

Ami had started with a fairly simple note; 'Can you read?'

Jaeger nodding slowly in response was more of a reaction than she had expected. Reading was one thing; written language was available literally everywhere in Tokyo, between street signs, store signs, newspapers, books, and text on television, it was nigh-omnipresent; understanding _and utilizing_ human social cues was an entirely different thing. Not that it was necessarily any more difficult (more likely less) to understand, it simply implied that the cat had developed more than one understanding of human communication.

Or the gesture 'nodding' could simply have come about as a coincidence; Ami decided she needed to engage in more empirical testing.

'If you can read, please shake your head.'

Jaeger shook his head.

'If you understand the difference between shaking your head and nodding, please first shake your head, and then nod.'

Shake, nod.

'Can you understand spoken Japanese?'

Nod.

"Well then," Ami said, a small smile gracing her lips, "You are quite the unusual cat, aren't you."

Jaeger nodded again, and Ami's smile grew.

((()))

_I suppose I should have expected this. Ami's a smart girl, and it would have been strange if she _didn't_ eventually notice that I was reading, rather than just staring at the book because she was. I guess I'm too used to expecting people not to be willing to break outside of the understanding of the world that their culture has cast for them, and work with new ideas and concepts._

_Still, this bodes well for her future survival; if she can break out of a closed mentality, then bringing more effective tactics to bear against the Dark Kingdom and later foes will be that much easier._

((()))

"So, how did you learn to read?" Ami asked, then after a moment's thought, covered her mouth and giggled, "Of course you can't..."

She trailed off as Jaeger picked up the pencil she had been using to write notes with his _tail_, flipped over one of her notes with his paw, sat down, and began to write her a message.

((()))

_Eleven Dexterity and Agility essentially means _perfect_ control of my body. Something very useful when you're trying to compensate for a lack of opposable thumbs._

((()))

'I used to be human,' Jaeger wrote, 'Before I was cursed into this form.'

Ami's jaw dropped open, and she stared at 'her cat' with shock. The idea of a cat with an unusually large and complex brain stretched her understanding of the world; the idea of a _curse_ that could force a creature into a different form, outright _broke_ it. She sat there, twitching and blinking for long moments, until Jaeger hopped up to place one paw on her shoulder, and poke her in the nose with the other.

She fainted.

((()))

_Well shit. That could have gone better; I'm going to have to be very careful about what happens when she wakes up._

((()))

When Ami woke up, there was a cat staring directly down into her face. Ami frowned in confusion for a moment; that wasn't the ceiling of her bedroom behind the cat. Then she gasped and curled inward on herself, looking at Jaeger in fear and worry.

Jaeger leaned down and gently butted his snout on her nose, purring softly. Ami closed her eyes, gulped, and began to tremble as the full import of what had happened just before she passed out began to sink in, instinctive fear of the unknown coming upon her. Jaeger lay himself down beside her, tucking his body flush against her side, and his purr lowered into a rumble while he slowly stroked her cheek with one soft paw. Warmth soaked into Ami's side, and as minutes passed while she fought panic and tears, 'her' cat continued to try to soothe her.

After a time, she rolled onto her side and impulsively seized Jaeger in a tight embrace, drawing comfort as she could, and slowly, gradually, the panic fled in the face of the familiar, and her rational mind began to override her instinctive fear response.

Unfortunately, the calming and recovery process was interrupted by Saeko getting home. Finding her daughter on the floor, wrapped around her cat and with tears streaking her face hit every maternal instinct she had with the force of an orbital bombardment, and the woman had thrown aside her purse and sprinted across the room before Ami realized she'd entered the apartment. The young bluenette had just enough time to look up and recognize her mother before she'd been swept off of the floor and into her mother's lap.

"What's wrong?" Saeko asked, worried, desperate, _focused_ eyes gazing down at Ami as she carefully inspected the girl for signs of injury.

"Reality is broken!" Ami blurted out, thrown completely off-kilter by her mother's unexpected behavior.

"Broken?" Saeko asked, recoiling slightly in confusion, "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Jaeger's sapient!" Ami gasped out, a torrent of words pouring out, "He can read, he can understand human speech, he started writing with his tail when I asked him a question he's-"

"Ami!" Saeko said sharply, shaking her daughter gently, "You've been dreaming."

She was distracted by a cat paw politely nudging her in the shoulder, and looked down to see Jaeger's glowing eyes staring up at her from within her daughter's grasp. He stuck his other paw against Ami's shoulder, then started pushing the two of them apart; neither of the Mizuno women made particular effort to resist him, and he was able to slip out from between the two without much trouble. A few brisk steps took him over to where writing supplies were still scattered on the floor, and his tail deftly scooped up a pencil as he sat down.

Then Jaeger began to write, his tail gracefully tracing arcs as it put down a simple message for them.

'Yes, the cat _can_ write.'

Saeko's jaw dropped, and she could _feel_ her brain crash as her thoughts came to a screeching halt.

"Reality does _not_ work that way!" She said in a dazed tone, her mouth half-running on autopilot.

"I said reality was broken," Ami said, a hint of pout in her voice, "Do you believe me now?"

"...Maybe," Saeko eventually managed to get out.

((()))

_This is a lot worse. Adults tend to have much more closed states of mind, rigid and inflexible worldviews. Most of the time, the older someone is, the prouder they are, and the more unwilling to admit they were wrong, _especially_ wrong about something big. This could go poorly, so I'll have to be ready to bring about the only 'big gun' I've got as far as persuading goes right now._

_Anybody seen Dragonball Z?_

((()))

"Somebody," Saeko decided with a frown, "Seems to be playing a very bad joke on us. I didn't think animatronics had come this far."

"Mother," Ami said quietly, "They _haven't_ come this far. Jaeger breathes, he has a heartbeat, his body generates heat, and he bleeds. I _know_ the vet would have noticed if he'd been some form of robot. Unless you're working on some secret government thing I don't know about, what motivation would someone have for using some sort of highly-advanced prototype to fool us?"

"...Ami," Saeko said sadly, "Your highly logical mind is ruining my attempt to salvage my rational understanding of the world."

"Sorry, mother," Ami said, looking down slightly and blushing.

"Don't apologize," Saeko said, giving her daughter a reassuring squeeze, "It's a good thing, even if it's hard sometimes. Now, what all had you been saying about the cat?"

"He's sapient," Ami said, "He can understand written and spoken Japanese, he can write with his tail, all of which he has now demonstrated, and he said he used to be human, before he was cursed into the form of a cat."

"Ah," Saeko said, sighing tiredly, "And now magic. I don't know if I can buy _that_ mu..."

Saeko trailed off as she turned to see that Jaeger was staring at her, while a visible aura began to coalesce around it. The aura was multi-colored, though red and blue were predominant, and as it intensified, the pieces of paper lying on the floor around it began to slowly lift off of the ground, its hair stood on end, and furniture began to shake.

"Okay, okay!" Saeko shouted, "You're a damn magical cat, enough with the light shows."

The display of power ended abruptly, and Jaeger's lips rolled back, showing off a toothy grin, as it chittered at her in amusement.

((()))

_I'd like to think I handled that reasonably well._

_...Apparently whatever mechanism or 'ROB' that runs this mechanism agrees; I just got enough RP experience to level me up, apparently. Yayifications!_

((()))

_...Leveling and raising my saves appears to have made me mildly more resistant to distorted-mentality effects. This is good; if I could raise those saves higher somehow, that would be even better. I've invested more DP in Notice, as well as finally placing some in Attack and Defense. I don't expect to be _particularly_ effective against Youma in combat, but if I can catch them by surprise, I may be able to crit them._

_In the meantime, after some further thought, I've decided upon my path to power, though I _will_ require a few resources from the Mizuno's to get started. Naru's been attacked though, which means the first assault on Ami will come far too soon for my tastes..._

((()))

"You want work space?" Saeko said when Jaeger held a note up to her during dinner, "What for?"

'Wood carving,' Jaeger wrote on a piece of paper, 'It's something I should be able to do as a cat.'

"...I suppose that's true," Saeko said after a few moment's thought, "Is there any particular reason you can't just use the dinner table when we're not eating?"

'We' and the dinner table included Jaeger; during their first meal after the 'broken reality' conversation (the night prior), he had picked his food dish up with his teeth, placed it on the table, and joined the Mizunos for the meal. Neither of them had seen fit to protest; something that was not unrelated to them still being of less-than-normal state of mind.

'I can,' Jaeger wrote, 'but it is polite to ask.'

"Well," Saeko said, "Your courtesy is appreciated. What kind of wood will you need?"

'I'll collect deadwood from parks,' Jaeger replied, 'I intend to start small.'

"I suppose that's a good place to start," Saeko said with a nod, then her eyes narrowed, "Now I've got a few questions for _you_ mister kitty. You say you used to be human, you're male, and you've been sleeping in my daughter's bedroom."

'I'm male,' the cat wrote back as Ami began to blush, 'And if you care to recall, I've never been in a bedroom or bathroom when either of you have changed. Beyond that, my physiology is currently wired to find female _cats_ sexually attractive; you and your daughter are no more appealing to me than a pretty flower. And besides, Ami wears very modest pajamas, I have not seen anything inappropriate. If you wish for me to begin sleeping in the living room, however, I will understand.'

Jaeger was forced to collect a new piece of paper after his lengthy response, and Saeko realized with some surprise, that he was writing faster with his tail than she could with her hands.

"...I suppose that's fair enough," Saeko admitted reluctantly, "I'll let Ami decide whether or not she's comfortable enough to let your basket stay in her bedroom. My next question, is why are you here?"

'I'm _here_,' Jaeger wrote back, 'Because your daughter saved my life and then brought me home with her. I've still not fully recovered mentally from the attack that nearly killed me, and I am thankful for you sheltering me while I recover.'

"Okay," Saeko said, "I can't really argue about that, I saw the condition you were in when Ami brought you home. _Why_ were you attacked?"

'I destroyed a powerful magical artifact at the center of a ritual which could have caused near-apocalyptic conditions,' Jaeger swiftly scrawled out, 'Apparently a powerful Dragon was using the ritual to try to purify the artifact over time. He was _displeased_ with me, and lay a three-fold curse on me before banishing me from that plane of existence.'

Saeko sat back for a while as she soaked in the cat's words, trying to fit them into her general understanding of the world. In the end, she largely decided that trying to force what had happened on another plane into her understanding of the world she _did_ live in was not immediately necessary.

"I don't really have any way to confirm that's true," Saeko said, "But given that you could have continued posing as a cat by simply not answering Ami's questions, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt regarding your personal integrity. What were the three aspects of this curse?"

'First,' Jaeger replied, 'I was cursed to lose access to my own magical abilities. Second, I was cursed to lose access to my Psionic capabilities. Third, I was cursed into the form of a cat, though it appears that my augmented physique transferred to my new form.'

"If your magic was cursed away," Saeko pressed, "Then what was with your little light-show yesterday?"

'There are three paths of power I am aware of in this world,' Jaeger wrote, 'Magic, Psionics, and the Dominion of Ki. The Dragon did not see Ki as being substantial enough to be worth it sealing off, and thus that is all that is left to me.'

"Magic, Psionics, _and_ Ki?" Saeko asked drily, "What were you, some kind of superhero?"

'Yes,' Jaeger replied, 'A superhero is _exactly_ what I was.'

((()))

_Things changed after that conversation. Ami is a veritable explosion of curiosity, and has dedicated almost every single spare moment she has to questioning me about all three branches of supernatural power, what the world I came from was like, how different quadrupedal locomotion is from bipedal, and how I manage to control my tail so well. I've been happy to try to work out the body mechanics of being a cat with her, and I've shared some of my stories of growing up with the middle east with her, but I've not shared any supernatural abilities with her yet._

_Mostly, because I'm not entirely sure _how_ to. I feel I should also note that Ami grinned the rest of the day after finding out that yes, I _am_ an American, by nationality as well as breed._

_Progress on carving is going decently well, I just hope things will be finished soon enough to deal with the first Youma we run into. Of course, I wasn't that lucky..._

((()))

_Wood, at least of size and quality for my 'starter' project, isn't too hard to come by. I'd say I was getting a few 'odd looks' for carrying around half-carved pieces of wood in my mouth, but I already get those looks for being a ridiculously huge cat, so I'm not really seeing much difference myself. I can chew or claw on the things pretty much anywhere, and when I'm sitting down my tail serves as adequate fine manipulation; this is actually easier than I expected it to be._

_The first Youma Ami ran into in the Sailor Moon series, was making a halfway reasonable attempt to be subtle (for the spawn of an eldritch horror with no real familiarity with human society), and had infiltrated her after-school school. I've heard such things referred to as 'Juku,' 'Cram School,' and 'Prep School' depending on the source, and I can tell you this much, based on my knowledge of child psychology, education/learning techniques, and social psychology: For 90+% of students, institutions like that are a bad idea. Overloading your students with rote learning is asking for trouble; burnouts, students incapable of creative thought, and rebellion from those dissatisfied with their life being nothing more than a glorified progression of rote memorization._

_Ami is not part of that 90+%. She soaks up knowledge like a sponge, if said sponge had the absorptive qualities of a black hole, and I'm beginning to suspect she may have a legitimately eidetic memory. She's building up a 'jack of all trades' knowledge set, and is planning on specializing in medicine once she reaches college. In America, someone of her ability would be fast-tracked out of high school and start college by 16; in Japan, they just heap more schoolwork on her. I've started talking with her about the advantages and disadvantages of the two different approaches, and I've gathered that part of the reason she hasn't tried to advance more quickly herself, is because she doesn't want to be away from her mother any more than she already is._

_Ah. I'm doing that 'losing train of thought' thing again. Anyways, we ran into our first Youma at Crystal Seminar (her cram school), but first, Usagi and Luna had a little run-in with us._

((()))

"Uwah," Tsukino Usagi said as she stared up at the modern building Crystal Seminar was in, "It must be really expensive to study there!"

"Stop standing around and gawking!" Luna growled, poking Usagi in the cheek as she did so, "I think that the Mizuno girl might be one of the Senshi, and besides, those Compact Discs that have been getting handed out from here _reek_ of Dark Kingdom magic."

"Ohhh, I hope she can help me get my grades up!" Usagi said as she slowly walked towards the school, "Mama's so mean when I get bad scores on tests!"

"Get closer to the entrance," Luna said quietly, "I'll need to touch her in order to tell if she's a Senshi or not."

"Mmhm," Usagi said, nodding as she walked towards the entrance, nearly running into a few pedestrians as the lion's share of her attention was spent staring up at the building.

It was early evening, and (with some difficulty) Luna had managed to herd Usagi into arriving at the school just before it let out. A few minutes after she arrived at the primary entrance, the Crystal Seminar students began to flow out, and Usagi turned to one of her favorite pass-times; people-watching. She looked at cute boys, beautiful girls, and anybody who seemed to have anything unusual and interesting about them; Luna focused on trying to spot girls with short blue hair, something that wasn't easy from her seat on the short Tsukino's shoulders.

So, Luna decided to move up to the wall around the base of Crystal Seminar, hopping with appropriate cat-like grace up onto the concrete surface, whereat she perched herself, and watched the tide of humanity below here. She could smell the scent of other cats on the wall, but that was hardly uncommon in Tokyo, and if one of the scents was unusually fresh, she paid it no mind, focused as she was on her task. Soon enough, the flow of students began to taper off, and Mizuno Ami trailed out at the tail end of the horde, her nose in a book. Luna curled herself up, aiming carefully towards the appropriate point in Ami's path, then leapt.

Her leap was cut painfully short as something slammed down on her tail, and she was jerked to a halt, smacking back into the concrete top of the wall as her momentum was swung around by whatever had her by the tail. Dazed and shocked, Luna made no move to resist as something seized her by the scruff of her neck like a kitten, then leapt down alongside the Mizuno girl, and began purring.

"Ohayo Jaeger-kun," Ami said as she turned her attention away from her book for a moment, then did a double-take when she saw the smaller cat that Jaeger was carrying, "Is that a friend of yours?"

Jaeger's tail twitched, tossing a small lump of half-carved wood that it had been holding up to Ami, who managed to catch it after a bit of fumbling, then waggled in the way that it usually did when the cat was trying to indicate that it desired writing utensils to communicate with.

"Ack!" Usagi gasped as she saw Ami and the cats, and ran towards them, waving her arms frantically, "Luna, what's happened to you?"

"Oh, excuse me," Ami said politely, gesturing down towards the black cat that Jaeger was carrying, "Is this your cat?"

"Ahhh!" Usagi said, beginning to panic as she stared down at the dazed moon cat, "Luna, are you alright? Say something!"

Ami blinked at Usagi's words, then glanced down at Jaeger, who dropped Luna, and signalled for writing materials again. Nodding, Ami swiftly dug a pencil and a sheet of paper out of her school bag, and set them down on the sidewalk. Jaeger's tail snapped up the pencil, and the large cat immediately began to write.

'This,' one of Jaeger's paws flashed out to pin Luna's tail in place as she had begun to try to creep away, 'Is a Moon Cat. She can talk; you should speak with her and her owner.'

"Ahhhhhh!" Usagi wailed as she stared down at Jaeger, "Your raccoon is trying to kidnap my cat!"

"...Jaeger-kun is a cat," Ami said slowly, before her etiquette instincts kicked in, "I'm Mizuno Ami, and Jaeger wouldn't try to kidnap anyone miss...?"

"A cat!?" Usagi said, turning to stare up at Ami, eyes wide with disbelief, "But he's so big!"

"He's American," Ami said simply.

"Ohhh," Usagi said with a nod, before her entire demeanor shifted to 'perky,' "Hi! I'm Tsukino Usagi, it's nice to meet you, I hope we can be friends!"

Luna, meanwhile, had finally recovered somewhat, and turned to look at what had 'kidnapped' her; she saw an enormous cat, holding a piece of paper up with its tail, and pointing to her with one paw.

"That," Luna said as she stared up at Jaeger, "Is _not_ a Moon Cat."

((()))

_I hate this. Luna is a pretty kitty, it's like being around a woman wearing a party dress that is _not_ modestly cut; distracting. I don't care if she's actually sapient, I don't _want_ to find a cat attractive. Fortunately, I have plenty of practice with 'don't look below the neck, look at the eyes.' That dumb look on her face helps too; I've always been attracted to intelligent women, blatant stupefaction helps the mind shut down the body._

_It's still kind of squicking me out that it's an issue in the first place._

((()))

Luna blinked and shook her head. She was _quite_ certain that the last she had checked, no earth-cats were sapient, and she was also fairly certain that 'domestic' cats didn't come in that size. Or the next two sizes smaller, for that matter. Her predator's instincts were torn between wanting to lash out at him for cat-handling her, and...

_That_ was something she hadn't felt in a long time; best not to think about it. Luna compromised, and retreated up on to Usagi's shoulders.

"Aww, did the big cat scare you Luna?" Usagi asked teasingly.

"That is not a Moon Cat!" Luna said again, thrusting her paw out to point down at the much larger feline, "No moon emblem on his forehead, he can't talk, and he's _way_ too big! Not a moon cat!"

"Okay!" Usagi said, before turning her attention back to Ami, "What kind of cat is he?"

"He's a _Mainuh Kun_," Ami said, smiling at the cheerful blonde, "They're native to the northeastern seaboard of North America, and are particularly known for their intelligence and gentle disposition."

"Uwah!" Usagi burst out, crouching down to look more closely at Jaeger, "I didn't know that normal cats could be smart enough to read!"

"They can't," Ami said, "Jaeger used to be human, before he was cursed."

Luna went stiff at that, staring at the larger feline with renewed interest. Jaeger took advantage of holding everyone's attention to write another note, and then gestured for all of them to read it.

'Ami, there is an item of tainted energy in your bag, were you given anything unusual in school today?'

Ami's eyes went wide, and she quickly opened her book bag and extracted a small CD in a clear case, then laid it on the ground in front of Jaeger.

"That's tainted with energy from the Dark Kingdom!" Luna gasped, "We must destroy it at once!"

Jaeger pinned the disk in place with one fore-paw, then extended the claws of the other, and slashed the disk, his claws slicing directly through the plastic case to shred the CD.

"...Good job?" Luna hazarded, rather startled by the prompt response; it would have taken her at _least_ five minutes to talk Usagi into destroying the disk without trying to play music from it first.

'I have the scent of the one that gave this to you,' Jaeger wrote out, turning to look at the school as he did so, 'I must go and confront her before these cause harm to the other students.'

((()))

_Stealth is easy, when nobody's looking for you. Crystal Seminar, Ami's cram school, was a pretty big place, and the scent of the person I was looking for was scattered all over it. If I'd had more experience (or maybe skill points) in tracking, I probably could have tracked the freshest scent effectively, but as it was, I could only tell if a scent was relatively new, or _really old_. Fortunately, I was not limited to purely mundane senses._

_The Youma _reeked_ of twisted, _wrong_ energy. Tracking her up to her office on the third floor wasn't at all difficult; deciding what to do once I'd found her was. On the one hand, I had no idea what the practical threat level of a Youma would be; on the other hand, my 'backup' if I needed to call for it was a pair of fourteen year old girls and an intelligent talking cat. The only reason I even hesitated in my decision, was out of fear that I would make things worse if I attacked, but failed to take the creature down._

_Lack of confidence has not, generally speaking been a problem for me; I used my claws to climb up the wall outside of 'her' office, then lay in wait. My body was literally the apex of what was physically possible for a cat, but even then, waiting in such an awkward position for so long was somewhat taxing. Still, she eventually left her office, walking out the door underneath me._

_For an instant, I hesitated. Despite my out of context knowledge, despite the intense _wrongness_ I could sense from her, I was still striking from ambush, and killing a sentient being. If I had been the me that was first cast between worlds, I would not have struck, but I had been through more than one battle since then, and I knew the price of indecision._

_I struck. Dropping down from above, I sunk my teeth between her third and fourth cervical vertebrae, an injury that would have been instantly fatal to a normal human._

_It wasn't fatal to her._

((()))

"Wretched creature!" The Youma screamed as it stared down at the cat, calling dark power to her hand, "I shall feast upon your flesh!"

The cat, however, had other plans, leaping directly upwards towards her throat, and she was forced to divert the energy of her spell into a shield, a shadowy construct that appeared out of thin air directly in front of the cat. It hissed, bouncing off of the shield and into the wall, from which it attempted another attack. Unprepared for such a swift attack from a second angle, the Youma was barely able to keep the cat's jaws from closing upon her throat; she wasn't able to keep the cat's claws from reaching what its jaws failed to.

A gurgled cry emerged from the Youma as she glared murderously at the cat, backpedaling as she attempted to marshal power for another spell, but unable to do so before the cat pushed its offense again. This time, the creature of darkness was better prepared for the cat's mobility, and deflected the creature's attempts to attack her throat again, and was then able to cast her spell, sending a wash of shadow down the corridor towards the cat.

The cat just snarled, apparently untouched by the spell's effects; the Youma's eyes widened in panic, and she continued to gather energy, retreating desperately as she attempted to buy more time for a second, more powerful casting. Her desperation lent it a strength of sorts, and she was able to deflect the cat into the wall at too short a range for it to recover, and the feline's defense was stymied temporarily, allowing the second, more powerful iteration of the spell to be cast.

A deeper, _harsher_ wave of shadow swept over the cat, and it shivered, visibly trembling under the effects of the spell. The life-force draining attack failed to _stop_ the cat however, and desperation drove _it_ to harsher measures; and a change of tactics resulted in the Youma being almost hamstrung by a tearing slash at her ankle. Despite the distraction the Youma forced herself to gather energies for a third spell, though she lacked the energy for a fourth.

It was not to be, however; the Youma's balance was fouled by her torn ankle, and the cat was able to slip into its guard, and finish with its teeth, the job upon her neck that it had started with her claws. Seconds later, the cat was alone in the school corridor, standing atop a pile of ash.

((()))

_That shouldn't have been so difficult. She clearly had no idea how to defend herself physically, and was wholly dependent upon her magic. I had her by surprise, at point blank range, and even though she tried to retreat, I'm faster than her by far, and she couldn't get away. I need to spend more time on battle-readiness if this is how fights are going to go..._

_Shit. Apparently I also need to work on my situational awareness, because there are two schoolgirls and a cat staring at me from around the corner..._

((()))

Part of Ami was horrified by the violence she had just witnessed. Part of her was horrified by the fact that _her cat_ had just killed someone (something? Humans didn't turn to dust when they died). Part of her was horrified by the _danger_ her cat was in, and how the woman (thing)'s spell had seemed to wound him, even if no blood was drawn. In all, she was very, _very_ horrified.

Usagi was afraid. She had fought a Youma herself before, she knew what she had just seen, and she was _desperately_ grateful, both that _she_ had not needed to fight it, and that nobody else had been hurt before it ended.

Luna was suffering from a mixture of relief and shock. Relief _someone _had survived to pass on the duty of defending the Moon Kingdom beside herself, and shock that a Mau (because what else could Jaeger _really_ be?) had managed to defeat a Youma in close combat _without_ magic. Granted, he was an unusually _large _Mau, but it was still _very_ impressive, and Luna found her posture instinctively shifting to one submissive towards the alpha-male.

Unsurprisingly, it was Usagi, of the three, who first worked up the courage to speak; not that she was any less afraid than Ami, she simply needed less courage to speak.

"Uwah!" Usagi said, eyes wide with awe and fear, "That was _amazing_ Jaeger-kun!"

The cat, who had been staring silently at them, closed his eyes, before lowering his head and shaking it.

"...Are you okay, Jaeger?" Ami asked quietly, her voice barely more than a whisper as she cautiously moved around the corner and approached her cat.

The cat nodded its head tiredly, and began to slowly walk towards the three females, opening its eyes and carefully studying them as it closed.

"...Are you _sure?_" Ami asked again, kneeling down to gently lay a hand on the cat's back as it reached her, a hint of emotional strain showing in her voice, "I saw that spell hit you, I don't know what it did, but I could see it hurt you _somehow_!"

The cat twitched his tail, twisting the tip of it into a loop, and Ami nodded, hastily pulling paper and pencil out of her book bag and setting it down in front of Jaeger.

'The spell drained my Ki,' The cat wrote, 'Effectively fatiguing me heavily. Since I prevented it from repeating the effect, I'll be recovered in a few minutes.'

"A few minutes!" Luna burst out, "It usually takes _days_ to come from a life-force draining attack! What were you before you were sent forward? A Knight? A Duelist?"

Jaeger's head reared back slightly at her outburst, and Luna's instincts reminded her rather _forcefully_ that pissing off the Alpha was a _bad plan_.

'I was a heavily augmented hybrid warrior,' Jaeger replied, 'Before I was cursed into this form, I was capable of shape-shifting, all of my forms had supernaturally-enhanced capabilities, and I could make limited use of Psionics, Spells, and Ki-abilities. The three-fold curse laid upon me before I was thrown across the planes stripped me of most of these abilities, restricting me to being the physical apex of what is possible for a cat, and Ki-abilities, which I have been forced to re-learn from scratch.'

"...So you were a part of a super-soldier program?" Luna asked cautiously, "I doubt your memory is any more intact than mine, but I vaguely recall the Jovians working on something like that. Do you remember which world you were from?"

Jaeger stared at her for a long moment before he answered her second question.

'...My memories were mashed up pretty thoroughly when I passed out of the dimensional cross-roads, but I do not recall answering to any particular monarch or Senshi.'

"Drat," Luna said, sagging sadly, "I was hoping you might remember more details than I do. Do you at least know if any other Mau reincarnated?"

Jaeger canted his head towards her, and Luna had the brief impression that she was being laughed at, before the larger cat's attention returned to writing out an answer to her question.

'You are the first Mau I have met since I awoke in this world,' Jaeger wrote.

"Too bad," Luna said, shaking her head, before turning a narrowed gaze on the larger cat, "But what were you thinking engaging without help from the Senshi! You could have-"

Jaeger lunged forward, snarling furiously, and Luna yelped, darting back to hide behind Usagi, sudden terror driving her temporarily witless. The larger cat stood where his lunge had ended, fangs bared, ears flat and muscles tensed, growling at the smaller cat with violence in his eyes. Both of the human girls stared at the cat with wide eyes, fresh memories of the cat tearing apart a full-grown woman prominent in their minds as watched the Maine Coon gradually calm himself down, then return to his writing utensils.

'I did _not_,' the cat scrawled out, anger making its writing sloppy, 'Fight my way through three wars, face off against _literal_ living legends, and endure the wrath of a Prismatic Dragon just to turn around and put children on the line of battle!'

"Children?" Luna asked incredulously, though her posture was still submissive as she peaked out from behind Usagi, "The Senshi have been-"

A loud snarl cut her off, and Jaeger began writing again.

'The Senshi _were_,' Jaeger put down as he glared at Luna, 'The Senshi _are_ a pair of terrified fourteen-year-old girls who are _just_ beginning to become adults, and have no idea how to fight a schoolyard bully, much less an army of evil bent on conquering the world. You, miss Royal Advisor, need to do two things. First, learn what the _present_ is like, rather than relying upon the past, and second, realize that while you may have been closer to the Queen, _I_ am the warrior here. When politicians attempt to wage wars rather than generals, wars are _lost_.'

Jaeger began to hurl the pencil aside, before visibly restraining his anger, and carefully dropping the writing utensil into Ami's limp hand, then bounding swiftly out of the hallway towards the stairs. None of the three females said anything for long minutes, until Usagi broke the silence.

"...I think you poked something really important to him," Usagi said softly, "You should be more careful what you say around him, Luna."

((()))

AN: And the plot sickens...


	3. Feline overconfidence

AN: Not posting late _this week_, no sir!

((()))

_I didn't think Luna would be able to get that kind of response out of me. Of course, I 'didn't think' about a lot of things, and still don't; my mind is a mess. I don't like that, and the only real upside is that I usually lose the train of thought before I can brood about it for too long; brooding isn't productive anyways._

_I need third level, and I need it bad. If I try to fight something that's more dangerous than some sort of 'infiltrator' Youma without Gemini, I'm going to be in deep shit. And I _really_ do not want to have to depend on a pair of fourteen year old girls for combat support, both because they shouldn't be forced into a life-or-death situation, and because they have no idea how to fight. Maybe I could try to persuade Ami to take up some form of martial art? I doubt it would give her much offensive ability as a Senshi, but the mindset and familiarity with her body's capabilities could do her a world of good._

_Ideally, I'd get all of the Senshi, including Usagi, to engage in such things, but I doubt I have the personal influence to pull that off. Even with Ami, it'll take a little while for my relationship with her to stabilize before I can really hope to persuade her of such a thing._

_In the meantime, I need to tell Ami and her mother about what's happening._

((()))

Ami looked at Jaeger through new eyes. She had understood, in abstract, what he had claimed about being a warrior, but until she had seen him fight that... woman-thing, she hadn't really _understood_ in the visceral sense, what he meant. Seeing death with her own eyes had opened them, so to speak, and it wasn't a particularly pleasant opening either. The younger Mizuno was torn between trying to sort sort through her emotions about the whole encounter on her own, and speaking with her mother about it; when Jaeger headed off the issue for her, she was somewhat grateful.

'Your daughter is a magical girl,' Jaeger informed Saeko at dinner that evening, 'And has unfortunately witnessed me slaying one of the monsters that are her natural adversaries.'

Saeko set aside her tea, and sighed.

"I figured this was probably coming," She said sourly as she stared down at the large cat, "I know what magical talking animals usually means for young girls. How bad is it?"

'Evil demon-like beings intent on conquering the world and using humanity as a source of food,' Jaeger wrote, 'They feed on the life-energy of a person, the physical effects of which could be likened to draining all bio-electric activity in the body to the point of death.'

"And what do you intend to do about this?" Saeko demanded.

'I have already slain the first such beast, which had taken on human guise,' Jaeger replied, 'But I have been reduced in ability even further than I had thought. Ami is not alone however, and once the other magical cat realizes what she is, it will empower her magically, as well as a number of others. The cat has already empowered one, though she is unsuited to battle.'

"And Ami _is_ suited for battle?" Saeko said harshly, glancing at her daughter for a moment before turning fierce gaze upon the cat.

'Your daughter is suited for _magic_,' the cat replied, 'The sharper the mind, the more able to learn and deploy magic it is. Whether this will translate to battle-capability, is up to you and her. I do not know yet whether non-supernatural weapons will be effective against our adversary, and trapped in this form, I lack the ability to find out under my own power.'

"Fair enough," Saeko said begrudgingly, "I suppose that the carving you've been involved in has something to do with all of this?"

Jaeger nodded slowly.

"Then go find yourself something else to carve," Saeko said somewhat waspishly, "While I talk with my daughter about all of this."

Jaeger snorted, then nodded and leapt off of the table, before sauntering out to the apartment's balcony, leaving the two Mizunos in privacy.

"Is Jaeger forcing you into this?" Saeko promptly asked, watching her daughter's expression sharply for emotional tells.

"Forcing me?" Ami said, confused, "Forcing me to... kaa-san, he hasn't even asked me to _do_ anything, in fact, he tried to hide this from me, I think."

"Hide it from you how?" Saeko asked, her sharp focus on her daughter's emotional state not fading in the least.

"He found out that the new teacher at Crystal Seminar was some form of monster," Ami said meekly, somewhat intimidated by her mother's intense attention, "By sensing some sort of dark magic on a CD I had been given. He destroyed the CD, then told me and Usagi-chan to-"

"Who's 'Usagi-chan'?" Saeko interrupted.

"Ah," Ami said, becoming a little flustered, "She's the girl with the talking cat, who met me outside of school."

"This other magical cat _talks?_" Saeko said incredulously, "Ami, you know that felines don't have the throat apparatus for that."

"It was a _magical_ cat, kaa-san," Ami said, beginning to shrink into her seat, "Her name is Luna, and I heard her speaking with my own ears. At some length, actually."

Saeko sighed, closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead for a long moment before looking at her daughter again.

"So now a talking cat," Saeko said with some resignation, "Next thing you know, it'll be a _flying_ cat."

Ami shrugged helplessly at her mother's words.

"Go on then," Saeko said with a sigh, "What did Jaeger do after destroying the CD?"

"He told us to wait outside," Ami said, resuming her narration of events, "While he tried to see if he could find the teacher who gave out the CD's. He was gone for a long time, so after a while, the three of us went to look for him. When we moved up to the third floor, we could hear a fight in the hallway, and when we got closer..."

Ami's words trailed off as fear welled up in her, and Saeko found herself skirting around the edge of the table to sweep her daughter into a hug again. It only took a moment to situate Ami in her lap, and Saeko made sure the distraught girl was firmly secured in her embrace before speaking again.

"What happened?" She asked gently.

"Ah," Ami started, shivering for a moment before continuing, "Ah, Jaeger, he was fighting with something that looked like... like... a mummified woman in the teacher's dress, and its throat had already been slashed by the time we got there. It had a shield made of shadows, and launched blasts of dark energy at him, one of which hurt him somehow, though there wasn't any blood, and the fighting got a lot worse. I've never seen a cat move so fast, but the creature was very good with its shield, and kept Jaeger mostly away."

"Only mostly?" Saeko said softly, and Ami nodded quietly, catching her breath for a moment before continuing.

"Jaeger wounded her ankle eventually, and that knocked her far enough off balance for him to get at her throat a second time, and... I know that going for the throat is normal behavior for predator species," Ami said, trembling slightly in her mother's arms, "But it was _scary_ seeing him tear it out, even from a monster like that."

"All the blood?" Saeko asked, thinking of some of her own unhappy experiences with death.

"No," Ami whispered frightfully, "No blood. The body turned to dust as soon as the creature died."

For some reason, Saeko suspected it was because of her own intimate experience with blood and death, albeit without violence, _that_ disturbed her more than any other part of the story.

((()))

_I didn't realize just how incoherent my mind was, until Saeko started more or less interrogating me every evening during dinner. It was odd enough being a cat, eating out of a cat bowl, at a table with a pair of humans, having the woman asking me every question she could come up with about the nature of the conflict and how I knew, revealed that her mind was more coherent than mine._

_That was a hard realization for me, and I think it was pretty hard for her too. The realization came when she was questioning me about the particulars of what I knew could and could not be done by Ki, and my train of thought was derailed from the possibility of transformation via Ki techniques, to stray memories of transforming 'mechs from the Battletech setting. That the words I was writing shifted train of thought without me immediately noticing was what gave it away to her._

_Saeko's sharp. She realized that I wasn't just shooting the shit when I'd told her I had mental damage. She asked me a few questions about how difficult it was to learn and maintain shapeshifting based upon Ki when we got back on topic, and that's where the conversation started to go strange places..._

((()))

"So with your stamina," Saeko said slowly, "You could maintain the ability indefinitely, more or less?"

'Yes,' Jaeger replied, 'Though it would cripple my ability to maintain other combat-relevant powers.'

"But only if you were attempting to maintain both at the same time, yes?" Saeko asked.

'Yes,' Jaeger wrote, staring up at the senior Mizuno curiously, 'Within seconds of dropping the effect, it would be as though I had never engaged it in the first place. Is there a particular reason this is significant?'

"...Because you could regain human form," Saeko said slowly, "You know, the ability to speak, opposable thumbs and tool use, being able to walk on two legs instead of four?"

'Important abilities,' Jaeger replied, 'But secondary to gaining enough offensive power to effectively deal with Youma and other supernatural threats decisively, before they can endanger civilians.'

Saeko sighed, before turning to her daughter.

"Ami," She said, addressing the customarily-passive girl, "I know you've been studying collegiate psychology. Analyze Jaeger's priorities and tell me what it says about his character."

"Ah," Ami said, her brow furrowing briefly as her mighty mind leapt into action, "Prioritization of combat ability above all others, specifically low prioritization of regaining capacity for free social interaction, assumption of prime responsibility on self, remained passive socially until others instigated contact... it's probably social phobia or trust issues combined with a protective compulsion."

Jaeger _stared_ at Ami. Saeko watched Jaeger; she had long since known how astute her daughter could be when pushed towards it.

'I think that's the first time I've seen you use your intellect proactively, rather than just for academics,' Jaeger eventually wrote, 'I probably shouldn't be so surprised.'

"...Sorry if I was too nosy," Ami said quietly.

Jaeger shook his head, and glanced at Saeko, who was still watching the cat closely, before replying.

'No need to apologize,' Jaeger wrote, 'I think we've known each other long enough for some honesty about such things, and I believe that critical self-analysis is essential to a meaningful life. Be warned though, I will return the favor at some point. Saeko, what were you trying to get at with this?'

"You're not just physically crippled, Jaeger," Saeko said, her voice firm but not unkind, "You're _mentally_ crippled as well. Do you really think you're in any sort of condition to prosecute a war."

Jaeger set his pencil down, then sat down and thought, his tail twitching occasionally as he did so. Nearly a full minute passed as the cat thought about his situation, before he picked up the pencil and began to write again.

'If it is indeed as you say,' Jaeger wrote, 'Then my judgment is too compromised for me to make clear-cut calls regarding strategy. I have shared most information relevant to currently existing threats with you already; if you think that conventional forces, such as police and the JSDF, can be brought into this conflict, then you as a competent adult can make that decision.'

"And if I need to more than what you've told me thus far?" Saeko asked pointedly, "If the military wants more proof than I can present?"

'Ask, and I will provide as I am reasonably able,' Jaeger wrote, 'The people of this city have a right to defend themselves, one that I will not attempt to deny themselves.'

And with that, he turned his attention back to his food, leaving both Mizunos with their thoughts.

((()))

_It'll be interesting to see what Saeko decides. She's sharp, but also very busy, and that her work involves making life and death decisions on a regular basis makes her pretty well qualified for all of this. I need to talk with Luna, and since the moon is out, and nearing empty, I doubt there'll be a better time for me to try to track her to the Tsukinos._

_Now I just need to find a phone book._

((()))

Luna's eyes cracked open as she heard a rattle, and she looked up to see a huge form looming in front of Usagi's bedroom window. The blonde was, of course, still out cold, but it didn't take much thought for Luna to realize who was at her 'door.' With a light jump, she landed on the window sill, and frowned at the large cat outside.

"What do you want?" She asked, confident that between Usagi's heavy sleeping, and a cat's sharp ears, speaking at a normal volume would serve her purposes best while trying to communicate through a closed window.

The larger cat twitched his tail, then reached down to bite into the window's wooden edging, and drag it open. Luna couldn't help but feel intimidated by the ease with which Jaeger accomplished the task; she was suddenly _painfully_ aware that the last time the cat had seen her, he was _very_ angry with her, and that she didn't have any Senshi or Royal Guards she could count on for protection at hand. Usagi did _not_ count.

Luna winced as she realized that she was agreeing with the more militant cat's line of thought. In retrospect, it was obvious once it had been pointed out to her, and Luna was not exactly happy with herself for missing that rather critical fact; even more so because given her spotty memories, she was doubtless missing _other_ important facts as well. While Luna was occupied with her thoughts, Jaeger crossed the bedroom to Usagi's desk, and quickly took up a pencil with his tail, and began writing.

"How do you control your tail so finely?" Luna asked as she scampered over to the large male, "At my best, I can scarcely grip anything with mine, and certainly not with such fine control."

'The following are the other Senshi,' Jaeger wrote out, 'Kino Makoto is Jupiter, and should arrive at Usagi's school soon. Hino Rei is Mars, and can be found at the Hikawa Shrine. Sailor Venus is Aino Minako, and should have returned to Japan recently, or do so soon. Have you identified the Princess?'

Luna _stared_ at Jaeger.

"Where did you learn such things?" She breathed.

'While you seem to have been cast through time,' Jaeger wrote, 'I have been cast through dimensions. I have seen many versions of what may come of the Senshi, but in all of them, they went by the same names. We will need to act swiftly, as the corrupted Shittenou are already seeking out the Ginzuisho, and if they acquire that, they will awaken Metallia.'

Luna seated herself gracefully on Usagi's desk, her tail wrapping around her feet, as she took on the full persona and mantle of the left hand of the Queen.

"You are very well-informed, Jaeger," Luna said, staring imperiously at the cat, "_Dangerously_ so. I must ask where your loyalties lie, as you have yet to say whose service you were sworn to."

'I will be blunt,' Jaeger replied, 'My loyalties do not lie with a kingdom long-gone, that I remember only snatches of. My loyalties lie with protecting the people I know, the people I don't know, and everyone in general. I believe in justice and mercy, though I'm an imperfect example of such myself. Where do _your_ loyalties lie?'

"To the Queen of course!" Luna snapped, somewhat offended by the question.

'What Queen?' Jaeger asked, 'I mean no offense, but there _is_ no Moon Queen right now, and until the Princess is found, you do not even have an heir. Even if you do find her, what will she be Queen of? Do you intend for her to overthrow the modern governments of Earth? Because they will not submit to such a matriarch peacefully. I ask these questions of you, because it has recently been pointed out to me, that my own thinking is compromised. If you have an answer now, I would be happy to hear it, but it would be hypocritical to expect it when my own mind is lacking in such things.'

"I thought you said you were a warrior, not a politician," Luna said grumpily as she stared at the larger cat with a new respect, "But your questions have merit. I have allowed the fact that I am unaccustomed to working in the field, rather than as an adviser to those giving commands to those in the field, to narrow my focus further than I should have."

The cat paused to glance at the blissfully unconscious Usagi.

"Not that dealing with that brat has helped things much," Luna continued, "Is Ami any easier to work with?"

The larger cat was slow to reply, staring off into space for long moments, before eventually shaking himself, and beginning to write again.

'I don't expect Ami to fight,' Jaeger eventually responded, 'She is just barely becoming an adult, and it would not be right to expect so much of her. Remember that Usagi is a child, rather than a seasoned warrior, and you will find her easier to deal with. If you wish for a warrior, Jupiter should be of more appropriate disposition, though she is young as well, and it would be best to make no assumptions.'

"You think she will fight without me dragging her into it?" Luna asked.

'I believe so,' Jaeger wrote, 'But again, my mind is not all that it should be, and I may be wrong. I would recommend that you approach her like the scion of a warrior house, forced into her inheritance before her time. Respect, understanding that she is young, but no condescension.'

Jaeger abruptly dropped the pencil, and leapt off to the desk, then to the window sill.

"Wait!" Luna squawked, "Where are you going? Why should I treat Jupiter in such a way?"

Jaeger glanced back at her for a moment indecisively, before twitching his tail into a loop, then leaping back into the room, and onto the desk.

'I have just recalled something I should have been attending to long since,' Jaeger wrote, 'Hopefully, lives will not be lost because of my failure of memory. And as to Jupiter, she is a powerful, capable and independent young woman, but she is also an orphan. Destroy the list of names after you memorize it, to protect identities.'

And with that, the Maine Coon returned to the window sill, and disappeared into the night.

((()))

_Dammit dammit dammit **Dammit!**_

_Jadeite and his _damn_ bus. If I'm going to have any chance of shutting him down and saving potential kidnap victims _without_ involving the girls, I'm going to have to stop him the first damn time he picks someone up. I should have been staking out the bus stop at the base of the Hikawa shrine every day since the encounter at Crystal Seminar, I've got no idea if the conflict has already started._

_Fortunately, I apparently am still earning 'role-play' XP, because after I left the Tsukino's I gained a level._

_Which means I can now learn Gemini, the art of combat puppets. I need to go finish crafting the first combat set _tonight_, so that I can begin staking things out tomorrow. I can't stop a bus, much less a Dark General, with just what I have at hand._

((()))

Jadeite had never driven _any_ vehicle before, much less a bus. Why would he have? He was a scion of a noble house of the Earth Kingdom, and chauffeurs had seen to his transportation needs while he was a child. By the time he had been old enough to be interested in going places _without_ his family knowing, he had mastered teleportation, and things had hardly changed since then. Still, he found an odd sort of amusement in piloting the vehicle. It was a large, powerful construct, driven by fire (his favored element), expensive, valuable, and he could control all of it with a few simple gestures from his hands. Not to mention those seated within; it vaguely provoked dim memories of his first command out of the Academy, when he'd held direct authority over a mere thirty men.

On the whole, he found it to be a pleasant means to his end, which made the mission substantially more agreeable than it might otherwise have been. Memorizing the bus's route was trivial for one of his intellect, and replacing the customary driver was even more so, though modifying his memories when the man woke would actually take a modicum of effort at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, Jadeite's vaguely good mood died an abrupt death shortly after he pulled out of the stop at the Hikawa shrine, when all four of the bus's tires exploded in rapid succession. Abruptly, controlling the vehicle became a _great deal_ less pleasant, as the metal rims of the wheels shredded through the deflated tires, screaming as they scraped into the road surface; the Dark General was barely able to keep the bus from swerving around and rolling.

The passengers screaming from the back of the bus did _nothing_ to improve his mood. By the time that the bus had come to a stop, and the passengers had all fled it (_still_ screaming!), his mood had become decidedly foul, and he turned his full attention to discovering just what had attacked his bus, because such catastrophic failures did _not_ happen by accident.

Dolls. He found _dolls_ in the wheel wells, little wooden dolls with bladed weapons also made of wood, and after a moment's concentration, a trail of life-energy leading back to a nearby bush.

Jadeite decided that there was a bush in need of... _punishment, _and a lance of intense darkness leapt from his hand. A muted blast shattered the bush and cratered the area around it as magic temporarily revoked physics in the area, and something _moved_, fleeing up the side of the hill that the Hikawa shrine stood upon. Jadeite snarled, and launched a second bolt of concentrated shadow, this time aiming for a target that he could _see_, if only poorly.

The second spell struck its target, and after another muffled _thump_, Jadeite could sense the creature was gone. He would have gone to spit upon its corpse, but he had begun to hear sirens, and the terrified bus passengers (and a number of nearby pedestrians) were staring at him in horror. Sneering, Jadeite teleported away.

((()))

_Pain._

((()))

Hino Rei was woken by an explosion. She neither heard the blast nor felt the concussion wave, but she most _certainly_ felt the wave of dark, _twisted_ energy that the detonation emitted. And that was _not_ something that she could just sit back and leave be. Lurching out of bed, she swept up her shrine maiden's garb, glad that the loose clothing could be swiftly (if sloppily) donned, grabbed a stack of Ofuda, and ran out of her room.

((()))

_War brings suffering, pain is no excuse to stop fighting._

((()))

By the time Rei reached the shrine yard, her grandfather had joined her, carrying his own accoutrements of purification. It took only a shared glance for both to know their purpose was shared, and they both ran towards the gate of the Hikawa Shrine, preparing for a conflict. The elder Hino worried for his granddaughter; he could not fault her sense of duty, but unlike himself, she had never faced violent conflict, much less conflict with the supernatural, and there was a very good chance that she would freeze up, or make a foolish mistake.

((()))

_Agony. Fighting effectively requires tools, pain must be inflicted upon the enemy once war has begun for victory to be achieved._

((()))

"Rei," The young maiden's grandfather said briskly, "Do you sense the concentration of energy on the hillside?"

Rei, moving swiftly but cautiously down the temple steps alongside her grandfather, nodded.

"Investigate that," He said, "It may be a survivor of whatever happened."

The shrine maiden nodded sharply, hiked up the baggy lower portion of her robes, and veered off of the steps into the woods along the hill's slope. Anything remotely capable of being called a 'forest' was rare in Tokyo, and after her mother had died, Rei had appreciated the relative tranquility and seclusion available on the wooded slopes of the shrine. As such, she was more than familiar with the forest's contours, and was able to navigate them safely in spite of the fading light offered by the sunset.

It didn't take her long to find an enormous cat, flailing around in the brush. It looked like it was having a seizure, its movements spastic, uncoordinated, and utterly unproductive; Rei might have thought it nothing more than collateral damage, save for its size, and the swarm of puppets milling about it, their movements every bit as uncoordinated as the cats.

"GRANDFATHER!"

((()))

_Excruciation. Worse, uselessness; the world is nothing more than an incoherent mass of sound, colors, smells, and other sensations. I cannot tell if my enemy is near or far, I cannot tell if my weapon is at hand or lost. I cannot even tell if I am in danger of injuring those I seek to protect._

((()))

By the time the Hino priest heard his granddaughter's call, he had seen the shikigami in the bus's wheel-wells, heard two accounts of the 'bus-driver,' and ascertained that whoever the man was, he was long gone. Hearing the only descendent he saw as worthy of recognition call with such desperation, he revealed a level of fitness that the onlooking crowd, some of them being regular visitors of the shrine, had not even dreamed the man could possess.

It took him less than a minute to find Rei, thankfully unharmed, and what _she_ had found. More importantly, to realize that what she had found was _wounded_, and judging by the blood dripping out of the side of the hole in its chest, it was wounded _badly_.

"Well," Hino said, sounding a bit surprised as he pulled a specific Ofuda from his sheaf, "I can honestly say I never expected to use a paralysis tag _this_ way."

((()))

_Everything stops. Including the pain, which I cannot help but be grateful. My left eye is focused distantly my right eye is focused up close, it's an unpleasant sensation, but at least I can see once more. Specifically, I see the face of a gorgeous young shrine maiden with long, loose black hair. Hello there Mars, I wish we could have met under better circumstances..._

((()))

"_Miss Mizuno?_"

"Yes?" Saeko said.

"_This is Tomiko from the Akizu Veterinary clinic. Do you own an unusually large male cat by the name of Jaeger?_"

"Yes," Saeko said, a sinking feeling growing within her chest.

"_I'm sorry to say that he's been badly injured in what has been reported as an auto accident. If you want to see him before he passes on, you had best come to the clinic at once._"

"I'll be there as soon as I can collect my daughter," Saeko said firmly, "What's the address?"

((()))

Ami had never been pulled out of class before in her life, for _any_ reason. The look on her mother's face when she arrived at Juuban Junior Highschool was even more frightening than the fact that something serious enough to warrant pulling her out of school had happened.

"It's Jaeger," Her mother said as soon as they were outside of the school building, "He's been injured, and the veterinarian he was taken to said we should come to see him as soon as possible."

Ami felt herself going cold, and hurried out of the school gate after her mother. Saeko owned a car, which was not a particularly common thing in Tokyo, but between her income, and her need to be on call for medical emergencies, it was a more than justified expense. It also gave her a freedom of mobility that she greatly appreciated, and was terribly useful at times like those she found herself in in that moment. Ami was the only other person in the car regularly, and the familiarity of sitting down alongside her mother helped stave off a panic attack, and draw her mind away from imagining the many, _many_ terrible things that could have happened to her cat.

She nearly screamed when Luna jumped into her lap before she closed the car door; she hadn't even known that the cat was _following her_, much less that it intended to join her in her mother's vehicle.

"Luna!" Ami gasped, "What are you doing here?"

The Mau turned to glance at the elder Mizuno woman, then looked back at Ami meaningfully.

"My mother already knows," Ami said, immediately grasping the feline's intention, "You can speak in front of her."

"Good," Luna said, "Now what's this about Jaeger being injured?"

Saeko's hands clenched around the steering wheel as the cat spoke, and she was _dearly_ glad that she had not yet started the car before someone had decided to punch _another_ hole in her logical, consistent understanding of the world. Resigning herself to the inevitability of it all, and feeling somewhat irritated at her own sense of responsibility, she relaxed her grip so that she could start the car, then put it into gear.

"I don't know much," Saeko said, "But I have a lot of questions for _you_ while we travel."

((()))

"I _know_ there isn't enough difference between feline and human anatomy for him to survive this," Saeko said flatly as she stared down at 'her' cat's injured body, "In fact, a hole that size through the chest should have been _more_ likely to kill him than if he was human."

Saeko and Veterinarian Akizu were both dressed in scrubs, and inspecting Jaeger's sedated body in one of the veterinarin's operating rooms. The large Tomcat had a hole horizontally through his chest; angled slightly downward, it had clipped part of one of his lungs, but even though she could see _clear through his body_, it hadn't caused him to bleed out.

"I was hoping," said Akize, a small man with very fine fingers, "That you would have some idea why he was alive. I knew that you were involved with advanced treatments for cancer, and had vague thoughts that you might have been working with some sort of regenerative therapy or genetic modification. If your cat had been a test case, that would explain his extremely abnormal size, as well as..."

"As the fact that he _isn't dead?_" Saeko finished for him, "I understand what you mean. My understanding of the natural laws of this universe has taken some punishment lately as well. Seeing the impossible right in front of you is not easy. How stable is he?"

"As stable as we can make him," Akizu said with a helpless shrug, "As it is, his continued survival is more dependent on the unexplained aspects of his recuperative ability than any action on our part. As it is, the reason that we did not make more of an effort to close the wound, as futile as it would have been, is because the police are looking into the cause of the incident that injured him, and we were expecting to do an autopsy to contribute to their investigation."

"Damn magical cats," Saeko grumbled, before walking over to the door and popping it open to speak to her daughter, "Ami, bring Luna in her and see if she can make anything of this."

"Luna?" Akizu said, "That sounds like a western name."

"It is," Saeko said grouchily, "Though why a cat from the moon would have it, I have no idea."

"A cat from the moon?" Akizu said incredulously, but was distracted by Ami entering with Luna in her arms before he could say anything further.

"How bad is it?" Ami asked fearfully, glancing back and forth between her mother and the partially-shaved cat on the operating table.

"Your cat looks to be supernaturally durable," Saeko said flatly, "He _should_ be dead, going by the injury he's sustained. I was hoping Luna could lend us some insight into the situation."

"Let me onto the table," Luna said, causing Akizu's jaw to drop in shock.

The doctor remained largely motionless while Luna inspected the wound, then closed her eyes for a moment, hissing viciously before she opened them and turned to look at Saeko and Ami.

"This wound was created by dark magic," Luna said decisively, "But Jaeger's internal magics are keeping it from being fatal. I don't know enough to say whether or not he'll recover, I was never a healer, but I can recognize that this response to a wound is natural for his body. Where did this happen?"

It took a pointed jab with her elbows for Saeko to prod the veterinarian into responding.

"He was brought in by the priest of the Hikawa shrine and his daughter," Akizu said, "Apparently they found your cat pretty much on their door step."

"We need to speak to them about what happened as soon as possible," Luna declared.

((()))

Making contact with the Hinos was not hard; they both came to visit the veterinary clinic themselves shortly after Rei was done with school for the day, and Saeko could tell with just one look at the girl's face (the priest's expression was much more well-guarded), that they had just as many questions as she did. Saeko, between being the only adult in her household and very nearly her own boss at work, was quite accustomed to being in charge of a given situation, and moved to take just that.

"Hino-san," She said seriously as the man walked into the room Jaeger was sleeping in, "Is your profession a matter of cultural tradition to you, or active participation in supernatural rites?"

"Hah!" Hino barked out, a smile growing on his face, "You're blunt woman; I like that. Allow me then to be equally blunt."

Hino pulled an ofuda out of the folds of his robe, and after concentrating for a moment, placed it in the air, before letting it go.

It remained _exactly_ where he'd put it, sans any visible means of suspension.

"Right then," Saeko said with huff as she stepped forward, carefully inspecting the ofuda for signs of mundane trickery, "So our cat is magical, and you probably realized that when you brought him in. What happened to him?"

"The police cordoning off the scene at first made it difficult to determine," Hino said, "But fortunately, one of the officers keeping a watch on the site during lunch rotation had sufficient respect for a priest's position, to allow me to 'ward off ill spirits' at the shrine, which allowed me a closer look. As best I can tell, some form of beast in human form, or perhaps a dark sorcerer, was aboard the bus that was stopped. Either your cat, or the Onmyouji he accompanies, knew of this being's presence, and halted the bus. There was some form of conflict between the two, which the dark being won, and then fled before the authorities arrived."

"Jaeger's a solo-operator," Saeko said, "At least so far. Hopefully he'll be less stupid when he wakes up from this."

"'Less stupid?'" Hino said curiously, "Whatever would you mean by that?"

"This is the second time that he's gone off to fight magical monsters by himself," Saeko said crankily, before nodding at the young blue-haired girl seated beside the small bed the cat was resting on, "He's worrying my daughter to death."

"But not you?" Hino asked, amusement clear in his face and voice.

"Bah!" Saeko said with a snort, "He's going to _annoy_ me to death. I don't know what it's like for you, being a priest and all, but I'm a doctor, and I learned of a very _rational_, _consistent_ world that is defined by natural _laws_, not something that can be twisted into a pretzel by magic at the whims of a creature that _shouldn't_ even be sentient."

"My dear," Hino said, a gentle smile on his face, "Has it ever occurred to you that while what you know as 'the supernatural' may be able to twist the laws that you already know, magic may have rules of its own?"

Saeko froze, and her eyes widened slightly, as her mind began to wrap itself around the conceptual consequences of the old priest's words.

((()))

As their guardians continued their own conversation, Rei slowly made her way over to Ami so as to introduce herself to the shy girl.

"Hello," The Miko said a little stiffly, bowing slightly, "I am Hino Rei, and I am sorry for your cat's injuries."

"Ah," Ami said, managing a sort of seated partial-bow to the taller girl, "I am Mizuno Ami; thank you for bringing Jaeger-kun to the veterinarian."

"It is no trouble," Rei said with a slight, dismissive gesture, "Even if he were just a common animal, to do anything less but aid an injured being on the grounds would be to betray our duties as keepers of the shrine, but as he is clearly some form of Nekomata or other spirit-beast, it would have been unthinkable to leave him to die."

"Jaeger's not a spirit-beast," Ami said, relaxing slightly as the somewhat formal Miko failed to be deliberately rude or mean to her, "He's cursed. He used to be human."

Rei startled slightly, and blinked, then turned to stare down at the injured and comatose cat.

"Used to be _human?_" She breathed, "He must have offended a _powerful_ kami to bear such a curse."

"He said it was a dragon," Ami said softly, "Though I don't fully understand why."

"A dragon spirit would have the power to do such a thing," Rei said with a nod, "Though I had thought all the spirits of such power had long since passed into slumber, awaiting the days when demons rise to assail the earth."

Ami went pale, something that Rei did not fail to notice; the Miko _als__o _did not fail to realize the most likely _reason_ she had gone pale.

"You've seen a demon as well?" Rei said quietly.

"Y-yes," Ami stuttered, nodding he head fearfully, "Some days past, one was attempting to infiltrate Crystal Seminar, the juku I attend, but Jaeger found it out, and killed it."

"This sounds like serious business," The elder Hino suddenly interjected, surprising Ami, who had not realized he was listening, "Did you witness this event?"

Ami nodded mutely.

"Then," The master of the Hikawa shrine continued, "As someone experienced in supernatural affairs, I believe it would be best if you told me everything."

((()))

By the time Luna returned to the Akizu Veterinary Clinic with Usagi in tow (or more accurately, carrying her), the Hinos had heard enough that their primary focus was on her, rather than the bubbly blond carrying her.

"So you're the talking cat then, eh?" The priest said with a genial smile, "Since the writing cat is out, I don't suppose you could tell us more about what's going on here?"

"...These are the Hinos?" Luna asked, turning to look at Saeko and Ami as she did so.

"Yes," Saeko said with a nod, "We've told them what _we _know about the situation at large. You're the only one who seems to have prior knowledge of things besides Jaeger, and he's not going to be telling us anything anytime soon."

"Indeed," Luna said, nudging Usagi into carrying her over to where the other two teenage girls stood beside Jaeger's unconscious form, "I must check something before I answer questions, however."

So saying, she hopped out of Usagi's arms and onto the table Jaeger was on, before padding silently up to Rei, and staring thoughtfully up at the girl. After a moment she reared back up on her hind legs, and extended a paw forward towards the Miko.

"Excuse me, Hino-san," She said politely, "But may I touch your forehead so that I may feel the energies within you?"

Rei glanced at her grandfather, and after the man nodded, she leaned forward so that Luna could reach her forehead. It took the Mau only a moment to confirm what she had suspected.

"Thank you," Luna said solemnly, settling back down into a more conventional posture on the table, "You are the reincarnation of Senshi Mars, the guardian and ruler of Mars, the mistress of fire. Jaeger gave me your name when he visited me the other night, and it is very likely he saw the attack coming, which is why he intercepted it, to prevent the Dark Kingdom from assassinating you before you could defend yourself."

Rei's eyes bulged at the cat's words, but she managed to hold in any outbursts, looking to her grandfather again for guidance. The older man crossed the room to stand behind her, and lay an arm around her shoulder reassuringly.

"You claim something of grave import about my granddaughter," the elder Hino said gravely, "What does it mean to be a Senshi, and what is this Dark Kingdom?"

"Thousands of years ago," Luna said, her posture changing somehow, and her presence filling the room, "Before your recorded history, though I know not how long, Earth was not the only inhabited planet in this solar system. Each of the inner worlds was settled, and moons of each of the outer worlds were also. All the other worlds and moons combined hosted perhaps half again the population of Earth, and the peoples of all of them answered to the throne of the Silver Millennium, upon Earth's Moon. The Earth Kingdom was the only nation that did not join, some say because their rulers were too proud, some say because they intended to simply wed with the line of Serenity, the Queen, and merge the kingdoms without needing to surrender sovereignty.

"In time, it seemed that the latter was proven true, as Endymion, the crown Prince of the Earth Kingdom, and Serenity the Younger, Crown Princess of the Silver Millennium, fell into a 'secret' romance. It was 'secret' only in that the two thought it to be so; both families approved of it. I could not tell you why Endymion's father, the Earth King, allowed it to continue, but I know that Serenity the Elder, the reigning Queen, hoped to bring a unification and peace to the system. Relations with the Earth Kingdom were strained at the time, especially as the Jovians were antagonistic towards them, though I cannot remember precisely why."

"How would you know such things?" Saeko asked coolly, "They would seem to be held to privy counsel amongst a royal court, to me."

"I was one of Serenity's two primary political advisors," Luna replied calmly, staring the doctor in the eye, "And though my memories are still somewhat fuzzy from the spell that brought me to this place, these were the events that immediately lead to the destruction of _everything_ within the Sol System."

"That seems unlikely," The elder Hino said calmly, "Given that we are yet alive today."

"Yes," Luna said flatly, turning to give him a very impressive glare, at least, impressive for a cat, "One planet amongst nine remains inhabited, with its past so thoroughly destroyed that none yet remember it. I said everything was destroyed, not that everything was destroyed _completely_. Only Earth had a biosphere that could sustain itself without magical support, which is why the other worlds are now barren. _Every single person on every other planet and moon died._ I do not consider my description of 'everything' being destroyed to be inappropriate."

No one said anything in reply, and after sweeping her gaze across the others for a few seconds, Luna continued her tale.

"Serenity the Younger, however, was not the only one who sought the Prince's affections," Luna said quietly, "A Court Sorceress of the Earth Kingdom, a young woman of such prodigious talent that she was attained the position in spite of not being of the nobility, had also fallen for the Prince. I do not know all of what led to it, but after he made it clear to Beryl that he did not return her affections, _Beryl_," Luna practically hissed the name this time, "Became greatly empowered by some means, wielding magics of darkness and destruction beyond her own power, and with an army of monstrous beasts known as Youma at her command, she assaulted the Moon, striking the royal palace during Serenity the Younger's birthday party."

Luna paused to take a breath, and her small body seemed to deflate as she did so.

"I will spare you the gory details," Luna said tiredly, "Her army was impossibly vast, and the moon was overrun. All of the Senshi were slain, and as the cities of the Moon were wiped out, the Youma began teleporting to other worlds, and sacking them. I don't think Beryl even realized that they were attacking Earth itself as well, but the Queen did. In a desperate attempt to save those that remained of her people, the Queen, whose power, both personal and granted by her position, was beyond compare, sacrificed her life to fuel a spell which sealed away Beryl and her Youma. As she lay dying in the ruins of her palace, she cast a final spell, hurling the spirits of the Senshi and the Princess, as well as myself and my partner Artemis, forward in time, so that they could live again on the Earth, once it was recovered from the ravages of war, hopefully in peace."

Luna's head lowered, and she stared down at her forepaws for a long moment, before finishing her tale.

"Her final words were to command me to find her daughter and the Senshi, and guide and protect them through their awakening."

With that, the black Mau leapt lightly down from the table, and swiftly left the room.

((()))

Kino Makoto had never met a talking cat before. In fact, while she thought she _may_ have heard of a talking dog, she didn't think she'd even _heard_ of a talking cat. All things considered, she was very confused about why one was in the doorway to her apartment, apparently waiting for her to get home.

"I don't _think_ I took any blows to the head," Makoto said thoughtfully as she dragged her gaze up and away from the cat and its little moon-shaped bald spot, "But if I _did_, wouldn't I have lost any memory of it because of the blow?"

"You're not hearing things," The cat said grouchily in a feminine voice, "I _am_ real."

"Look, cat," Makoto said, staring down at the feline, "I'm not the best student, but I know cats don't have the right parts to talk like a human. It's not just _weird_ for a cat to talk, it's _impossible_."

"Well, let's test this then," The cat said, "Call up the Akizu Veterinary Clinic, and ask them if they have a cat called Jaeger in their care, property of the Mizuno family. If they do, then obviously I'm imparting new knowledge to you, if not, then you're just hearing things."

"If I'm hearing things _now_," Makoto said pointedly, "Then why couldn't I hear things from the phone either."

"...I'm going to irritate you until you at least try it," Luna said flatly, "I'm too tired for a better plan, and I don't have the time for you to think you're having a meltdown."

"...Why are you bothering me anyways?" Makoto asked.

"Because I _think_," Luna said, "That you're the reincarnation of a magical warrior princess that I'm looking for, and I need to get all of the Senshi together as soon as I can if I'm going to fight this war effectively."

"...I need to stop watching magical girl anime," Makoto said flatly.

((()))

A tall brunette girl carrying a cat stormed into the clinic, with murder in her eyes. The receptionist opened her mouth to challenge the girl, but a single glance stopped her, sending a chill down her spine, leaving her unmolested as she stomped into one of the office's inner rooms that the cat pointed to. She burst into the room even more forcefully than she'd entered the clinic.

"Which one of you is Usagi?" She demanded harshly as she glared around at the room's occupants, and noting unhappily that there was, in fact, an overly large wounded cat on the room's padded table.

"I am!" Usagi said, her cheerful demeanor not dampened by Makoto's apparent anger.

At least, not until the larger girl hurled the cat she was holding directly at the blond.

"Your damn talking cat," Makoto growled, "Spent the last _hour_ deliberately shedding on everything in my apartment. Now what's so important that you lot needed me here?"

"Whatever Luna brought you here for," The room's only (conscious) male occupant said as he moved forward to stand in front of Makoto, who was significantly taller than him, "It is a purpose that will not be served by your anger. We did not ask her to bring you here, we do not deserve your anger; please calm yourself."

Makoto glared at the somewhat wrinkled old man; he met her gaze calmly, with no edge of challenge or anger of his own, and gradually, she calmed down. The room's other occupants breathed a sigh of relief, especially Usagi, who was rubbing a sore spot where she'd taken a Mau to the chest.

"That hurt!" The blonde said, "You didn't need to be so mean!"

Makoto turned towards the blonde and scowled, but the elder Hino intervened before she could say something.

"While it wasn't the best way to deal with her conflict," Hino said, "Your cat has very much provoked her. Now, could we get your name?"

Makoto faltered, beginning to realize the kind of first impression she'd just made, and looked away, her face beginning to burn with shame.

"I am Kino Makoto," She half-mumbled, "I'm sorry for the display, but I am very tired of people provoking me and relying on rules and courtesy to keep me from making them stop, even though I am much stronger than them. A _talking cat_ invading my home and provoking me in such a manner was simply too much."

"I can understand your displeasure," Hino said kindly, "Just last night I was woken up by a sorcerer attacking a cat on my doorstep. It is most unpleasant when the supernatural intrudes violently and uninvited upon your life. I was much older than you by the time I learned to handle it gracefully."

"...Priests really deal with Youkai and Kami?" Makoto asked cautiously as she took in the Hinos' garb.

"Some of us do," Hino said with a nod, "My granddaughter here has a natural affinity for the sacred fire in our shrine, and in time, she will likely join me in the rare time some poor soul turns to the Hikawa shrine in dealing with forces they do not understand."

"Or if Luna is right," Saeko said with a scowl, "That time may come a lot sooner than either of us would desire, for _both_ of our daughters," She paused for a moment, and turned to Makoto, "Kino-san, are you of legal age yet?"

"I'm fourteen," Makoto said flatly.

"And yes," Luna said cautiously from Usagi's lap, "She is Senshi Jupiter. This leaves only Venus, who is already under the guidance of my partner, Artemis. With this, all of the Senshi are gathered, and we should hopefully be able to fight the Dark Kingdom effectively."

"I'm _not_ comfortable with making children, my daughter amongst them, fight a war," Saeko said flatly, glaring at the Mau.

"I would prefer veteran Senshi myself," Luna replied calmly, "But with Jaeger disabled, Hino-san here is the only other adult of supernatural abilities we have available. If you have a better suggestion, I would be happy to hear it."

"As a matter of fact," Saeko said, "I do."

((()))

AN: Luna may seem to be unnecessarily antagonistic towards Makoto here, but please try to keep in mind two things; first, the way she tries to drag Usagi into things in 'canon' continuities, and second, that people fairly frequently do foolish things right after they've had a very intense, unhappy emotional experience.


	4. Cat-napping

AN: Picking cut-off points for these chapters is a bit of a trick. I posted this a lot more 'free-form' over on SB CrW, but oh well.

((()))

Mizuno Saeko walked into the lobby of Mobile Police Forces Division Two's offices, the only branch of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that carried heavy combat equipment as standard, and approached the receptionist's desk directly.

"Excuse me," She said politely, "But who would I need to speak to if I'm concerned someone I know may need the protection of this division?"

"Either captain Goto, or captain Nagumo," The receptionist, a pretty young woman wearing an informal kimono of all things, said as she looked up at Saeko, "Captain Goto is currently in; would you like me to see if he is busy?"

"Yes please," Saeko said with a smile.

"Have a seat," The receptionist said, gesturing towards one of the lobby's rather spartan chairs.

Saeko did so, though only a few minutes passed before the receptionist called her name, and then guided her to the captain's office further within the building. The captain's office was not far, and once she was ushered in, she found herself to be facing a man utterly at odds with her expectations. He was tall, almost too tall to be Japanese, built more like some of her western coworkers at the hospital, his expression was lackadaisical at best, and he wasn't so much _sitting_ in his chair as he was _lounging_ in it.

"'Lo there," Goto said casually, making no move to stand to greet Saeko as she entered, "What can I do for you?"

"Well, Goto-san," Saeko said as she appropriated one of the chairs in front of the man's desk, "I am rather _concerned_ for my daughter's safety, and was wondering if you had any officers who were interested in earning some extra income when they're not officially 'on the clock.'"

"Possibly," Goto said with a lazy shrug, "Depends on what you're looking for."

"I've checked the laws," Saeko said carefully, keeping a sharp eye on Goto's expression, "And legally, there is no functional difference between a police officer who is on, and off duty, so long as he follows procedures. I have concerns that my daughter may find herself in trouble, but hardly enough evidence to formally request an escort or intervention on the part of the law. I also happen to have a great deal of money, however, and was thus hoping to hire some _unofficial_ protection from the law."

"And you came to the most heavily armed division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police?" Goto said mildly, "I'm not going to hire my officers out as muscle for you, Mizuno-san."

"I'm not asking for muscle," Saeko said, shaking her head sharply, "All I want is for people armed with more than pissant little revolvers watching out for my daughter, and if she gets into a situation that merits it, intervene to no greater or lesser extent than they would in any other crime-in-progress while on duty."

"So basically," Goto said with a faint smile, "You're looking for bodyguards capable of carrying assault rifles and making arrests."

"You could put it that way," Saeko said with a sharp nod, "I'm willing to pay half-again an officer's normal hourly wage. Do you think any of your men will be interested?"

"We'll see," Goto said with a lazy grin.

((()))

"So," Luna said as she studied the four girls in front of her who were standing in the private part of the Hikawa Shrine's grounds, "As I have mentioned before, Venus is elsewhere, and acting under the guidance of my counterpart, Artemis. With the four of you gathered as well, that makes all of the Guardian Senshi, though only Usagi amongst you has transformed yet."

"I've seen Maho Shoujo," Makoto said flatly, still radiating some clear displeasure with the black Mau as she held up what looked like a novelty pen, "I take it these have something to do with us 'transforming'?"

"Yes," Luna said with a nod, "You are the reincarnation of Senshi Jupiter, Hino-san is the reincarnation of Senshi Mars, and Mizuno-san is the reincarnation of Senshi Mercury. If you will all raise your henshin wand, then say the name of your planet, and 'planet power, make up,' you should transform into your appropriate forms."

Makoto gave Luna a _look_, one which very clearly said '_seriously?'_ without a single spoken word. Rei held her 'henshin wand' between both of her hands, directly in front of her face, as she closed her eyes and attempted to feel the flows of energy within the odd artifact. Ami just studied the device curiously, recognizing the classical sigil of Mercury from Roman mythology on the end of it. Unusually for her passive disposition, she was the first to actually _use_ the item, calling out the named transformation phrase.

A few seconds of disorienting light-show later, she was clad in a white blouse that fit more like a swimsuit, and a blue skirt shorter than anything else she'd ever worn in her life.

"Charming," The elder Hino said, shivering slightly in his seat, "Though that is a _lot_ of power you are channeling right now, young lady. Do you have any idea what to do with it?"

"Not really, Hino-san," Ami said shyly, her body posture curling inwards in reaction to feeling overexposed by the skimpy outfit, "I don't suppose you could teach me?"

"Sorry girl," Hino said with a shake of his head, still shaking slightly from the pressure of Mercury's power, "I know some charms for warding, purification, and detection, but that's about it. I manipulate ki more than 'proper' magic anyway; I very much doubt there are more than a handful of 'true' practitioners left in Japan, and I further doubt they have a fraction of the power you do."

"You might be surprised," A new voice cut in, and everyone's attention turned to a tall blonde man wearing what looked like a dress military uniform and cape, "Recently four more of us have arrived."

"You," Hino said calmly, standing and striding forward to place himself between the newcomer in the girls, "The sense of your power; you were the one on the bus."

"I was," The man said, a positively fiendish grin coming to his face, "I am Jadeite, general of the Dark Kingdom, and since you have been kind enough to gather all of the Senshi in one place, I'm afraid I will need to kill you now."

((()))

Waiting idly in their patrol car at the base of the stairs to the Hikawa shrine, Izumi Noa and Ohta Isao both started violently as a reverbrating crash sounded from the shrine above, followed seconds later by a thunderclap.

"Shit," Ohta growled as he kicked his door open, before blitzing around to the back of the squad car, and popping open the trunk, "And you said I wouldn't need the SAW!"

Izumi was already halfway up the shrine's stairs.

((()))

AN: Shit happens man. Nasty shit.

((()))

_When I woke up, I was in pain. My 'HUD' informed me that I had 30 out of 165 Life Points, and was at a -269 All Action Penalty due to critical damage. Due to the added difficulty, the most _basic_ of tasks had taken on a difficulty of 'Almost Impossible,' and the sheer amount of pain involved in just breathing drove the point home with excruciating clarity._

_Opening my eyes, I could see nothing but a washed out, confused blur of colors. I called out, attempting to draw attention, but my words were mangled; I tried to sit up, to grasp something with my hands, but all I managed was to thrash around weakly. Even that little was too much, and exhausted by my efforts, I passed out again._

((()))

"He woke up briefly today, Mizuno-san," The receptionist on the phone reported, "He wasn't awake for long, but he moved pretty much every major muscle group, so sensei thinks he'll make a full recovery."

"Thank you," Saeko said, exhaustion plain in her voice, "My daughter could certainly use some good news. You can expect her to be by to visit later today."

((()))

_The second time I woke, I managed to remember that I had paws, not hands, and that the rest of my physical 'malfunctions' were at least in part because I was stuck in the body of a cat. I didn't really manage much more, aside from suffering the pain in my chest. Thankfully, it was not long before I passed out again._

((()))

"Is he aware of the world around him?"

"Were not sure yet, Mizuno-chan, but he's conscious for longer periods every day."

"...It's kind of scary, like when I first found him."

"Hai, I've read his history. He really tends to get into trouble, doesn't he?"

"Mmm."

"Or maybe it's just that some Kami cursed the Hikawa shrine. Did you hear what happened to it?"

"I was there."

"...Oh. Is that were you were injured?"

"Hai. I was one of the lucky ones though..."

"...I'll leave you alone with your cat now."

((()))

_The pain faded slowly. By 'slowly' I mean I could gradually perceive the pain's recession from period of consciousness to period of consciousness. It wasn't fun, at all, but eventually it came to a place where it was _bearable_ at least. A more coherent awareness of the world around me developed as well; just enough that I could tell I was being kept at the Vet's office, before I started waking up in the Mizuno home again, specifically, to Ami feeding me._

_She had done it before, when I was crippled the first time, but hadn't known I was sapient. Now, with her aware of the fact that I was more than 'just' a cat, it was both one of the most humiliating and intimate experiences I'd ever had. Humiliating, because I was so utterly incapable of taking care of myself that I needed such coddling, intimate, because I hadn't received that kind of direct, personal care purely because someone _cared_ for me since I was a young child._

_Despite the continual intense pain from the wound Jadeite had inflicted on me, part of my heart insisted that having that kind of compassion displayed towards me made it all worth it._

((()))

When Jaeger finally recovered enough to start responding to her questions, gesturing with his tail for writing material, Ami was so happy she nearly cried.

"Jaeger-kun," She breathed as she lay the cat on the dining table, and placed a pencil and piece of paper alongside him, "...um... ...can you understand me clearly?"

'Yes,' Jaeger wrote out, though his writing was a lot sloppier than usual, 'How long has it been?'

"Two weeks," Ami said, a smile spreading through her voice and across her face, "I was so worried, we nearly lost you!"

Jaeger awkwardly extended a paw over to Ami, and rested it on her hand.

'I'm sorry for worrying you,' He wrote, 'But one of the Dark Generals was moving to abduct some people and I needed to act as soon as possible. What have I missed while I was out.'

Ami told him; Jaeger hissed.

((()))

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters was a large building, though not unusually so by Tokyo standards. It was easily large enough that the Superintendant General, one Sakurada Natsuna, could easily arrange for people she wanted to see to 'lose' any inconvenient tails, be they press, political, or police officers who didn't know how to keep their mouths _shut_ in front of said reporters and political hacks.

It took a good twenty minutes, after entering the building with her cat in hands, for Mizuno Ami and her mother to reach their destination, guided by a rotation of officers that Natsuna personally considered trustworthy. Said destination was a mid-sized conference room, already occupied by Tsukino Usagi and her parents, Makoto Kino, a stony-faced Hino Rei, and the Superintendant-General herself, along with two aides. Quite unusually for the TMPD HQ, a second cat was already on the conference table when the Mizunos entered, though it took Jaeger only a second to recognize Luna once she turned towards him.

"Ohayo, Saeko-san, Ami-san," Sakurada called with a gentle smile as they entered, "How is Jaeger-kun doing?"

Jaeger flicked his tail, and Ami smiled hesitantly back at the older woman, though she was too intimidated to actually speak. Ami had, of course, _heard_ of Sakurada Natsuna; it was impossible not to, given the young age at which she had risen to her rank, _especially_ given that she was a woman in a culture that largely still held quite strongly to its patriarchal roots. Natsuna was barely in her mid-thirties, and like many Japanese women, looked much younger; Ami didn't particularly have the eyes to see it, but Saeko readily recognized that the woman spent a considerable amount of time on her appearance, and not just to look _good_, but to achieve a look that served a particular _purpose_.

Natsuna was gorgeous; slender of form, with wide, brilliant blue eyes set in a smooth, softly shaped face, and sleek, glistening hair done up in a bun that was both attractive, and professional. Saeko had worked with any number of professional women, some of them on the top of their career track (including herself), and knew how to read the image that the woman was trying to project. Dressed in the female version of the dark blue uniform that all TMPD officers wore, with the notable addition of four gold stars on the collar, she conveyed an image that was pretty and attractive enough to appeal to people who would see her in public appearances and apply little enough thought that the positive impression her physical appearance made would be all they remembered, while still remaining professional enough that more prejudiced chauvinists would not be able to accuse her of either pretending to be a man, or being too 'girly' for the job, and maintaining a commonality with the officers under her command by wearing the same uniform they did.

All of it was topped off with a force of presence, a force of _personality_ that made it subconsciously clear that _she_ was in command of the situation, that _she_ was in charge, and held authority wherever she was. Saeko had projected the same sort of aura at times when dealing with conflicts at the hospital she worked at, but never with anywhere _near_ the intensity or ease that the other woman did. Since meeting the woman for the first time over a week ago, Natsuna had come to represent a kindred spirit on a different path to Saeko.

To Ami, Natsuna was just intimidating.

"He's well enough that he's asking about what's happened while he was insensate," Saeko eventually said for Ami, nodding towards the large cat the girl was cradling in her arms, "And yesterday he started being coherent for hours on end, so he should be up for briefing us."

"Good," Natsuna said, gesturing towards a pair of chairs just on the other side of one of her aides from her own, "Have a seat, and let's get started."

Once the Mizuno women were seated, and Jaeger was placed on the table beside a set of writing implements, Natsuna's attention shifted to the Maine Coon, and despite feeling a little silly (even after regular conversations with Luna over the last week), she addressed the cat directly.

"So," She asked, "Jaeger-san, Luna tells me you have intelligence available regarding the 'Dark Kingdom,' specifically that you have already revealed at least some of their objectives, and some of their force disposition."

Jaeger nodded, and just for the sake of establishing his status as more than an overly-large cat, wrote 'yes' out on one of the provided sheets of paper as well.

"Good," Natsuna said with a nod, "Luna here has briefed me on what she knows, and the situation thus far is as simple as it is grim. Eleven days ago, an individual by the name of 'Jadeite' attacked the Hikawa shrine via offensive magic, specifically attempting to kill the resident Hino family and their guests. Due primarily to the sacrifice of Hino Sousuke, the proprietor of the shrine, Hino himself was the only fatality that Jadeite was able to inflict."

Rei's face slowly reddened and her jaw clenched, as anger and grief warred within the girl; Natsuna turned a sympathetic look her way before continuing.

"Due to the actions of officer Izumi Noa," She said, her voice grim, "And private citizen Kino Makoto, Jadeite was killed before he could do more than injure any of the others, though supernatural defenses on the parts of the surviving occupants had a great deal to do with it. Normally, the account of a single officer and a handful of civilians wouldn't bring such an incident to _my_ attention; as sad as it is, Tokyo is a city of thirteen million, and there are too many murders amongst that number to draw my personal attention. What _did_ bring it to my attention..." Natsuna gestured towards one of her aides, and the man activated a very modern overhead projector, which spread an image of the pulverized rubble of the _entire_ Hikawa shrine, as well as a fair bit of the shattered forest on the hill around it, across one wall.

"Whatever form of magic this Jadeite fellow used," Natsuna continued, her voice and face conveying deadly seriousness, "It caused detonations almost on a level with a fuel-air-bomb. We've had the JSDF and the USJF crawling all over the site, and due to press coverage, at this point, it's functionally been declared the site of a terrorist attack, whether it truly is or not." Natsuna leaned forward, and stared down at the Maine Coon on the conference table in front of her, "The eyes of the nation are on this city, and the only reason that my political detractors aren't screaming for my removal due to failure to accomplish anything after this, is the fact that the JSDF and USJF have returned just as little result as my officers have. None of the other organizations involved are willing to even _consider_ the possibility of supernatural involvement in this mess, despite the eyewitness accounts, despite the irregularities of the blast patterns, and I'm _not_ handing Luna over to the Diet as 'evidence.' What can you give me to help us fight this threat before political infighting cripples us, Jaeger-kun?"

((()))

_The woman was sharp. Every bit as sharp as Saeko, but unlike the senior Mizuno woman, Sakurada Natsuna had dedicated herself to a career in criminal justice, and she clearly knew a lot more about what to ask than Saeko did, which was hardly surprising. I filled her in on pretty much everything, including the names of the seven 'Great Youma' hosts, and the fact that Usagi was the princess Luna was looking for._

That_ got a bit of a reaction. Sakurada kept things on track though; she didn't even have to shout in order to do so. She moved on to the enemy's location, objectives, and capabilities, and once she did _that_, she got a bit of a funny look on her face, and then asked the hardest question someone had put to me since I arrived in this time and place._

((()))

"If you knew all these things, Jaeger-kun, all the different things magic was capable of, why didn't you prepare for them when you ambushed Jadeite?"

The cat paused, and lifted his tail to write out a response, before twitching, and lowering it. Then he raised his tail again, before twitching again, and lowering it; the pattern repeated itself three times before Jaeger finally wrote something out, though it wasn't what Natsuna expected.

'I'm sorry,' He wrote, 'What was the question again?'

Natsuna leaned back in her seat, and began tapping her lips thoughtfully with a finger. Most of the room's other occupants looked on in confusion, though Saeko winced, and a look of dawning horror came across Ami's face. Natsuna spent a few minutes looking around the room, gauging the others' reactions, before one of her aids tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yes?" She said mildly.

"Aino has just arrived," The aide said quietly, "She should be here in ten minutes."

"Thank you, Nara-kun," Natsuna said with a small smile, before turning towards Jaeger again, "Now as I recall, Jaeger-kun, some being has laid a powerful curse upon you, limiting your own magical abilities?"

'Yes,' Jaeger replied, 'A powerful dragon lay three curses upon me. One to turn me into this form you now see, one to bar my access to psychic disciplines, one to bar my access to the paths of magic.'

"Can you tell me what affect that has had on your ability to think about the practical uses and affects of magic?" Natsuna asked.

Jaeger twitched, and stared at her. And continued to stare, until Natsuna frowned prettily and sighed, before turning to look at the Mizunos.

"How long has this been happening for?" She asked, noting that Jaeger twitched again as she asked the question.

"...For about as long as we've known he could communicate," Saeko said with a scowl, "I already knew he had mental problems, but it wasn't clear just _what_ they were."

"And what are they, Mizuno-san?" Rei asked, her tone painfully dispassionate.

"As best I can tell," Saeko said, "And keep in mind we're trying to psychoanalyze a cat here, the curses are keeping him from making the jump from the theoretical understanding of magic, to the practical understanding of _what it actually does_."

As soon as the words were out of Saeko's mouth, Jaeger _screamed_. It was as much a snarl as a scream; a cat's throat simply wasn't structured like a human's, but it was a shrill, piercing sound that caused thos around the table (and Luna atop it) to recoil violently nonetheless, while the twitches Jaeger had been experiencing intensified into a spastic fit.

"Does anybody here know how to restrain a cat?" Natsuna shouted, her hands over her ears to block out the painful sound of the cat's screeching, "He's going to hurt himself!"

Makoto lunged halfway across the table out of her chair, and slammed her hands down onto Jaeger's shoulders, pinning him in place, though it did nothing to stop the yowling.

"Waaahhh!" Usagi burst out, "So _loud! _Make it stop!"

A small panic ensued amongst the civilians, and one of Natsuna's aids withdrew a tazer from inside his coat, glancing at the Superintendant-General meaningfully, but she shook her head. Just over half a minute later, Jaeger's fit ended, and the cat flopped onto his side, panting tiredly.

"Well," Natsuna said softly in the startling silence that ensued, "_That_ little question is answered, I think. Makoto-chan," she turned to face the younger Mizuno, "Could you and Ami-chan please take care of Jaeger for the time being? However limited he may have been by the curses he suffers, he has already given us all of the information that we need to make a plan."

Both of the teenagers nodded, Makoto gently sweeping the large cat off of the table and into her lap, Ami sidling closer to converse quietly with the much larger girl.

"So," Natsuna said, turning her attention away from the distressed cat, and towards Rei, her expression regretful, "Our first objective will be the recovery of these 'jewel's Jaeger spoke of. We may already have one of them in our possession, but in order to be certain, I'll need you to authorize a full autopsy on your grandfather's body."

"That's unlikely to reveal anything," Luna put in, "The jewels were used as focal points for metaphysical seals. While the full magical theory is beyond me, either because I was never that advanced in sealing magic, or because I've forgotten, I'm pretty sure that the jewels _shouldn't_ be physically present."

"Unfortunately," Natsuna said grimly, "Given the nature of the threat we face, I can't take that chance. I assume that if the gem did _not_ manifest upon his death, it will have instead fled with his spirit until such time as it reincarnates anew?"

"...I think so?" Luna said hesitantly, "Spiritual metaphysics weren't my strong point _before_ my long spell in stasis."

"And that is a certainty that I cannot take a chance upon," Natsuna said, staring the cat down, and ignoring the part of her that said the conversation she was having was utterly absurd, "If the jewel is lost to both us and the Dark Kingdom, we need little fear a global-scale threat, but must fight powerful magical foes, apparently concealed beneath the ice caps, with mundane resources and the magical abilities of empowered girls who _barely_ have reached the cusp of adulthood. If the jewel is not lost, then the entire fate of the world depends on who gains control of the seven first. I am _not_ willing to believe any location in this world is beyond the reach of such powerful foes capable of teleportation."

"Do it," Rei said, her voice harsh from the strain of emotions within her, her face stretched into a frightening scowl, "My grandfather gave his life to protect us. It is the tradition of my family to cremate our dead, and he would be most displeased if we risked the entire world over what was done to his remains _before_ cremation."

"Thank you, Hino-san," Natsuna said formally, "For another sacrifice on all of our behalf."

A somewhat strained quiet fell over the table for a few seconds, as Natsuna conferred with one of her aids via whispers, then he stood and left the conference room. Fortunately, the quiet did not last long, as the door opened again less than a minute after the man had left the room, admitting another blonde teenage girl, this one carrying a white cat with a crescent-shape on its forehead.

"Welcome, Minako-chan," Natsuna said with a small smile, "Have a seat, and we'll catch you up on what's been happening."

((()))

AN: Remember, the author has long-since decided to leave 'canon' manga content behind. Keep that in mind before you make knee-jerk reaction posts in regard to things referred to by various characters.

((()))

_From a purely physical perspective, the brain is not supposed to be able to feel pain; it doesn't have the receptors for it. I've heard many times that patients only receive a local anesthetic for some forms of brain surgery (so that they don't feel their skull being sawed open), so that they can give surgeons feedback on what the surgery is doing to them._

_This either does _not_ apply to cats, or the curse put me under some form of metaphysical pain like nothing I have ever known before. It was bad enough that I was literally insensate to the world around me, all eight of my senses utterly overwhelmed by the deluge of pain, my thought processes scrambled, until I faded into a sort of half-awareness._

_Oddly enough, the first thing I was aware of, was that a mechanical addiction was being fulfilled; a few seconds later I became aware that this meant someone was cuddling me; a few seconds after _that_, I could make out brown and blue hair above me. It took a few _more_ seconds to make the mental connection that Ami and Makoto were holding me; nearly a minute for my vision to clear enough to make out their features._

_I groaned, feeling more than a little pitiful, and the sound came out as a pathetic mewl, which inspired Ami to pick me up from their laps, and cradle my head up against her shoulder. I lay limp in her grip for several minutes before I fully regained my senses, finding that Natsuna was briefing Aino Minako about the situation at hand._

((()))

"...Sooo, you've dealt with a Dark General here, but there's three more, then the boss-monster?" Minako summarized.

"I suppose you could put it like that," Natsuna said, "But the focus is really much more on the jewels. From what Jaeger-kun has provided us with, they are the decisive pieces on the field."

"Maybe," Minako said, making a slightly disgusted face, "But I can tell you for sure, that Dark Kingdom stooges won't give up until they're dead. We'd probably be better off getting one of the jewels, then using it as bait to take out the rest of them, instead of trying to get all seven and splitting our forces up."

"I'm hesitant to agree, Minako-chan," Natsuna said, "But you _are_ the one with the most experience fighting the Dark Kingdom's agents. Do you have any advice on how to fight them?"

Minako's eyes went flat, her expression dead, her mood dying such an abrupt death that even Natsuna flinched.

"Yeah," Minako said quietly, "Check _everyone_ you know, and I mean _everyone_, to see if they're an infiltrator."

"Well then," Natsuna said, a hint of sorrow in her voice, "We'll start with that. I assume you have a means of discerning whether an individual is a traitor or not?"

"That'd be me," Artemis said, leaping down onto the surface of the table, "And if she remembers yet, Luna as well."

It was at that point, that Jaeger yowled, and rolled himself out of Ami's grip and onto the table as well, before crossing to stand beside Luna.

"Great Spot!" Minako exclaimed as she got her first clear view of the larger feline, "What kind of cat is that?"

"Jaeger-kun is a _Meinkun_," Ami supplied helpfully.

"He's huge!" Minako said, her eyes widening even further when Artemis crossed the table to stand beside the other two cats, allowing her to see that no, Luna _wasn't_ just very small for a cat.

"He's American," Ami said, raising a hand to hide a giggle.

"Ohhhh," Minako said, nodding with understanding, "That makes sense."

"Matters of size aside," Natsuna said, a small bit of bittersweet humor returning to her, "We'll start with myself and my aides, before moving on to _every_ single other member of the TMPD in this building. With what I have in mind, we can't afford _any_ security leaks."

((()))

_I'm not entirely sure what Luna and Artemis used to check if others where infiltrators, but it was some kind of magic or another, so it didn't matter that much to me. What I had, on the other hand, was the Eyes of the Soul, and when you walked right up to someone and _stared_ at them with said eyes, you could tell whether or not their Ki was flowing in natural patterns damn quick. My basic ki-sense was pretty decent too, but there were ways of fooling that._

_It turns out Natsuna's caution was justified, we _did_ find one infiltrator Youma working in the TMPD, specifically inside the records department, which gave them access to _all_ past cases with no restriction. It also made it fairly easy for them to get information on _current_ investigations without too much trouble, they could just ask for copies 'for the archives.'_

_I'm still not sure whether the Dark Kingdom is being run by very sharp planners, or idiots. It's hard to tell at this point. Either way, Natsuna made it very clear that she wanted to try taking the Youma down with conventional weapons before bringing up the magical combatants; combat experimentation was necessary at _some_ point, and thus, the Youma's boss was directed to call her down to the firing range for a proficiency test..._

((()))

Natsuna liked having a firing range in the very citadel of her power (also known as the TMPD Headquarters); not only did it allow her to maintain her skill without having to interrupt her own schedule too much, it also allowed her to accomplish _many_ other things without undue fuss, such as what more or less amounted to an assassination. There wasn't really much else to call it, when four magical girls were waiting in the wings, just in case the two snipers with anti-material rifles couldn't get the job.

Assuming, of course, that the identified infiltrator actually proved to be a Youma; as much as Natsuna believed in establishing trusting relationships with the people she worked with, as a matter of principle, she was not willing to give a kill order _just_ on the word of a cat that hadn't _proven_ its ability to her personally yet. Even if she was willing to put that much trust in an as-yet unproven ability on the part of a sentient talking magical cat, doing it without further substantiation would cost her her job when one of her political detractors heard of it. Which they _would_ sooner or later, _nothing_ stayed secret forever in Tokyo.

Fortunately, not only had Artemis been correct when he identified the Youma in her ranks, but Jaeger had been right when he laid out his basic psychological profile for Youma; arrogant, conceited, and _very impulsive when provoked_.

"Look!" Luna gasped as 'Officer Mamono' stepped into the firing range, "A Youma!"

The 'woman' glanced around the firing range, saw no visible signs of humans within, then turned a predatory sneer on the female feline.

"Look," 'She' said, her voice mutating into a guttural growl as her body twisted into a warped monstrosity, "A Mau all alone in-"

The thundering report of a .50 caliber sniper rifle cut off the rest of the Youma's words, much like the round the weapon had fired cut through her head. A head which rather than spewing blood and brains, disintegrated into dust, followed rapidly by the rest of the abomination's body. Natsuna had not exactly disbelieved what the others had told her, but this, _this_ was something she had needed to see before she started issuing orders that would carry throughout the city at large.

Especially given the stakes that they were, in fact playing for.

"Well boys," Natsuna said aloud as she stepped out from behind one of the sniper's blinds, "It look like heavy ordinance works on them without the need for magic, so that's good." A small smile broke out on her face before she continued, "Also, they're ugly, which is good because we'll be able to pick them out in a crowd, and bad, because _ew!_"

((()))

_I could see the change, when Natsuna shifted from 'reasonably confident' that we weren't bullshitting her, to 'committed.' Her body-language changed, the look in her eyes, and she shifted from small-scale to large-scale planning as soon as we left the firing range in the basement. Apparently, she keeps three different task forces, each with their own sub-divisions, ready for 'go do' tasks; a mixture of quick-response teams and discretionary manpower. One of them is occupied, one of them has two of its divisions engaged in rapid-response reactions elsewhere in the city; the third, with more than a hundred men and women comprising its force, has been dedicated to tracking down the first of the jewel-bearers, while the magical contingent tries to figure out how to extract them._

_The first one they decided to track down is a priest named Peter Gabriel (no relation to the singer), an Anglican Vicar in Yokohama. Natsuna is having her 'collection team' operating under the belief that his parish has been identified as a potential attack site by the same group that hit the Hikawa shrine; it's the truth, even if not exactly for the reason that they suspect. In the mean time, I need to repair the damage done to my puppet swarm; It's not the best combat capacity ever, but it's the best that I've got._

((()))

Makoto had never watched a cat carve wood before; it weirded her out a little bit, but she was thankful for the distraction, given what was happening in the other room. Watching Artemis and _That Cat_ try to figure out just what Jaeger was doing went beyond distracting, into downright entertaining.

"Look," Artemis said, clearly frustrated, "I'm not trying to say your work is pointless, but I _still_ don't understand how charging wood with the damn things' _food_ is going to allow you to hurt them."

Jaeger's tail flicked out and wrote down a simple response, 'Have you ever tried to eat something with claws that _really_ did not want to be eaten?'

"That's _different_," Artemis said, rolling his eyes in exasperation, "Youma sap life-energy with a _touch_, even if you touch them with a claw."

'How many amongst the moon kingdom were trained to use their ki as a weapon?' Jaeger replied, setting aside a small carved limb, before picking up another small branch to gnaw and claw on.

"...None," Artemis admitted, "I don't understand how it can make that much of a difference though."

'Makoto,' Jaeger wrote, his tail flicking towards the small desk that occupied one corner of the lounge they were waiting in, 'Could you toss me a pencil from that desk?'

"Sure," Makoto said shrugging before crossing over to the desk, fishing a pencil out of a cup filled with writing utensils that lay atop it, and tossing it across the room towards Jaeger.

It was intercepted halfway across the room by a puppet with a knife, which sliced it in half, then caught both halves, and drew them around to where Jaeger was working.

"Some of the sensei I learned from," Makoto said carefully, as Artemis stared at the animated doll in confusion, "Said I have very strong ki. I generally thought they were talking about my drive to be strong, but sometimes it seemed like they meant something more than that, but I wasn't sure what. If that's using Ki, not magic, then maybe you can tell me what kind of ki they meant?"

Jaeger turned to look at her, one paw deftly pushing the branch he was working on around in his mouth as he skillfully gnawed on it, and after a moment, his eyes began to subtly glow.

'Ki can be used subconsciously to make a warrior stronger, faster, tougher,' Jaeger wrote out, 'All I need to do is look at your energies to see that you have learned to do all three. It is highly likely that the only reason you were able to injure Jadeite at all, is because you are literally supernaturally strong.'

"I don't know if I like that," Makoto said, "Does that mean I've been cheating in sparring matches?"

'No,' Jaeger replied, 'Anyone is _capable_ of what you have done. Only those of truly great determination will actually achieve it, however. It is no more unfair than a first-dan sparring with a fifth dan.'

"I guess-" Makoto began, but was cut off by Natsuna (with her ever-present pair of aides) and Rei entering the room, a brilliant jewel clutched in Rei's white-knuckled hands.

"The jewel has been recovered," Natsuna said grimly, "We're going to have to start attempting extraction methods with the police."

((()))

_Hurry up and wait. Luna, Artemis, and all of the assembled Senshi were working on trying to get the rainbow jewel out of the vicar; I didn't really have anything to do with myself except for making more puppets. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to convince Saeko to buy me some raw steel, or Natsuna to let me use the small machine shop in the TMPD headquarters (it was there to support the motor pool). I had to experiment a fair bit, between using the assorted machine tools and my own ki-augmented claws and fangs, but I was able to craft some reasonably high-quality puppets without too much trouble. The moon was moving towards new, so working at night helped._

_Before long though, I'd managed to rig up something I was _more_ than proud of, this time not a swarm, but rather a single, powerful beast of a thing. It took me three days to make; if I hadn't been of supernatural endurance, it doubtless would have taken me even longer, because I ended up operating on not a whole lot of sleep. Some of the TMPD officers who were 'in' on Natsuna's operation came by to watch me work sometimes; I suppose it's not every day that you see a giant cat building a giant metal cat._

_I think I may have pissed off Saeko with how much metal I used though._

((()))

"My queen," Nephrite announced grandly, "I have successfully divined the source of our troubles, and Jadeite's defeat."

"And that would be?" Beryl demanded coldly, gazing dispassionately down at one of her three surviving human(ish) subordinates.

"It would appear that a third Mau survived the destruction of the Moon Kingdom, oh so long ago," Nephrite said theatrically, conjuring an image of a shaggy cat with a gesture, "One who retained considerably more knowledge and ability than the pair of courtiers who've been advising the reincarnated Senshi thus far."

"I assume you have a plan to _deal_ with this nuisance then?" Beryl asked, her icy tone making it clear that 'no' was not a valid answer.

"Of course, my queen," Nephrite said simply, "A plan as simple as it is direct; wait until the Mau is alone, and then teleport in and seize him; the only question is whether you would prefer him dead or alive?"

"Alive!" Beryl declared, "If this wretched creature knows of secrets of the time before the Fall, we must have them."

"Of course, my queen," Nephrite said, bowing deeply, "Then I have your leave to devote our full resources to this plan?"

"Do so at once!" Beryl demanded, "I do not wish to see your face again until you can bring me word of your success."

"By your command," Nephrite said, saluted, and then teleported away.

((()))

_Supernatural awareness only goes so far. Being able to see the very life-force of a being is a great boon; having senses that are literally paranormally sharp gives one an excellent edge in battle. None of these things matter of your enemy catches you (literally) napping, and their method of insertion to the battlefield is teleportation._

_Being outnumbered three to one, when each of your foes is more powerful than you individually, is just gratuitous._

_Nephrite, Kunzite, and Zoicite all teleported into the room where I had been cat-napping (the living room at the Mizonos), which fortunately was _not_ a particularly subtle entrance, and I snapped awake instantly. I've always been good at not freezing up when a sudden crisis pops up in front of me; not always the best at making the _right_ snap decision, but I always _make_ one. Memories of pain connected with my confrontation with _one_ Dark General drove my reaction to having _three_ show up surrounding me; I bolted._

_I hope Saeko doesn't mind the broken window too much._

((()))

"You were right, Nephrite," Kunzite said rather grudgingly as he stared out of the window the cat had just smashed its way out through, "I'm _already_ annoyed with the wretched little ball of fur."

"Fortunately," Zoicite said, gesturing sharply towards the cat that had just landed on the street below, "We have ways of dealing with such nuisances."

A writhing mass of darkness erupted around the cat, pinning it in place; the creature struggled, but the bonds held, and the three Generals teleported down to street level. Unfortunately, the bonds did not _continue_ to hold, as the cat sank its fangs into one of the ribbons of darkness pinning it down, tearing it apart, and then tearing free. Zoicite launched a second mass of shadows at the creature, but it slashed them apart with its claws and fled.

"Why must I be surrounded by incompetents?" Nephrite moaned as he snapped his fingers, summoning a considerably larger mass of shadows, then flicked it at the fleeing feline.

The larger shadowy mass cocooned the cat totally, and though it thrashed about within its prison, the more powerful bonds Nephrite had conjured _endured_.

"If you're willing to waste your energy on such an overpowered spell, of _course_ it will be more effective," Zoicite returned with a sneer.

"If it's effective," Nephrite said flatly as he walked over to pick up the bundle of shadows, "And a lesser effort isn't, it's hardly a waste, is it?"

And with that, the trio disappeared, captured cat in tow.

((()))

"Well," Natsuna said as she studied the 'crime scene,' such as it was, "This _may_ make things significantly more difficult."

"_May?_" Saeko said, a tinge of disbelief in her tone, "Jaeger knows pretty much _everything_ we're planning, not to mention the identity of all the jewel-bearers. If they get him to talk-"

"_If_," Natsuna said pointedly, "We've been operating on the assumption that he's been telling us the truth for some time now; and do you remember what he told us about his personal history?"

Saeko grimaced as she thought back to some of the things the large feline had told her and her daughter, before the police or any of the other senshi had been brought into the conflict.

"Exactly," Natsuna continued grimly, "I rather doubt they'll be able to force him to crack. If they _do_ however, I intend to be prepared."

"How so?" Saeko asked.

"Jiro," Natsuna said with a smile as she turned towards the named aid, "Please get ahold of Admiral Burkhalter's aide."

((()))

"The Mau in question, my queen," Nephrite announced as he dropped the bundle of writhing shadow in Beryl's throne room.

Beryl raised a disdainful eyebrow towards Nephrite, who correctly interpreted the gesture, and shaped the ribbons of shadow binding the cat such that its head was exposed; it hissed at all of them, but did not speak.

"Cur," Beryl scowled, "I will give you one chance to discard your foolhardy loyalty to the dregs of _Serenity's,_" she spat the name like it was a curse, "Ruined empire, and swear loyalty to myself."

The cat stuck its tongue out at her, and Beryl's expression turned murderous.

"Very well then," She growled, "I will have what I need of you _without_ your aid."

So saying, she began to chant and twist her right hand about, smoothly flowing through the motions of a potent spell, wisps of darkly gleaming energy beginning to flow from her hand into the bound feline. Its struggles to escape from Nephrite's binding spell redoubled, and as the first of the wisps reached its eyes, it burst free, only to descend into an epileptic fit as the magic touched its mind.

"What _is_ this?" Beryl demanded as she glared down at the spasming creature, her painted lips twisting in distaste, as though she had bitten into something of an utterly wretched flavor, "I _know_ that you lack the power to resist my magics..."

She stepped down from the dais on which her throne rested, her eyes beginning to glow as she studied the supernatural aspect of the creature before her. A hint of surprise showed for an instant on her face, before her glowing eyes narrowed in concentration, and she slowly circled around the cat as it regained control of its limbs.

"I," She said, faintly thoughtful, "Have not seen a magic such as this since before my mentor died, and even _he_ would not go to so much trouble to curse a mere _advisor_. You are more than you seem, little Mau, but I will know what soon enough."

Another spell, this time a longer one, flowed from her lips and hands, and pages began to coalesce around her, swiftly stacking themselves together into a thick tome; when a spine and cover appeared over the magical book, the spell was complete, and Beryl plucked it out of the air. 'Jaeger' was inscribed on the cover, and Beryl wasted no time in opening the volume and consulting the table of contents. Which, to her displeasure, comprised almost twenty percent of the pages with anything actually _written_ on them, but what she discovered on those pages swiftly overcame her displeasure.

"Well then," She said, glancing down at the cat for a moment before returning her attention to the tome, "Not a Mau at all, are you? A human cursed into the form of a cat, and beyond that, your own not-inconsiderable magical abilities tightly bound. You never were a subject of the Crystal Throne, were you?"

The cat hissed again, but shook its head.

"And you're mute. I _do_ suppose that a common cat would lack a Mau's ability to speak," Beryl continued, a shadow of speculative interest spreading across her face as she spoke, "You truly _could_ be a worthy vassal, once the curse upon you is lifted."

The woman gestured again, and a set of writing implements appeared in front of Jaeger.

"Now that you are capable of responding," Beryl commanded imperiously, "Where are you originally from? With whom do your loyalties lie?"

'My loyalties lie with my God and the ideals I derive from His creed,' Jaeger replied, 'Before they lie with any liege.'

"One would suppose that a dimensional wanderer such as yourself would lack both a sovereign to bring with him," Beryl mused thoughtfully, "Or a domain capable of following," she paused, her demeanor shifting in a more imperious direction again before she continued, "But you are now in _my_ domain, and thus you must answer for your actions in interfering with the work of my subjects."

'Your subjects were assaulting people without just cause,' Jaeger replied, 'stopping them was simply the right thing to do.'

"You have no right to interfere in the work of my agents!" Beryl snarled, "Earth is _my_ domain, and you have no title or standing to challenge my commands!"

'Do the people swear allegiance to you or your throne?' Jaeger asked, 'Does the currency carry your image? Do the flags bear your crest? You _claim_ sovereignty, yet I see no proof of your authority."

"Usurpers," Beryl hissed, energy beginning to crackle around her hands, "I will bring them to heel in time."

'So you say,' Jaeger said, flicking his tail dismissively, 'Yet others ruled before you did, and many would doubtless call you an usurper. If you come to hold actual authority, and rule as a wise and just monarch, I will be willing to serve you in some capacity; there are many shattered nations around the world that could use a strong ruler, and likely would welcome such. Japan is not such a nation, and all I have seen your vassals do is sow destruction.'

Fury, outrage, and something else that Jaeger could not quite identify warred in Beryl's eyes, long moments of locked gazes stretching onward, until Beryl finally broke the gaze first.

"Nephrite," She commanded imperiously, "Take this creature to our maximum security cell. He shall remain their until such time as our realm is restored, and _then_ he shall prove the truth to his words."

"At once, my queen," Nephrite bowed, seized the cat by the scruff of his neck, and then disappeared.

((()))

AN: Oddly enough, by the time I was writing the last third/quarter of this fic, I'd actually forgotten about the scene where the TMPD infiltrator Youma was revealed/destroyed. I'd thought that I had intended to include such a creature, then forgotten to do so. Funny how things like that can work, isn't it?


	5. Escape Cat

AN: A reminder, again, that this was originally posted on a forum. Some formatting oddities (such as possibly AN's in what is now 'mid-chapter') can be expected. I'd still like to hear about anything particularly egregious though, so that I can fix it.

((()))

"Damnation," Luna cursed, and Artemis winced.

The black moon cat was _not_ one to curse casually, and had been noticeably more irritable in the two days since Jaeger had been abducted; Senshi Jupiter's continuing ill-will towards her hadn't helped her mood either. The vicar, whom Luna had been testing another extraction method on, simply raised an eyebrow at the Mau on his lap.

"I don't suppose whatever faith cats take part in practices confessional?" He asked wryly.

"Not usually," Artemis said hastily, not giving Luna's frayed temper an opportunity to respond, "But then, we were career political advisors, not experts in spirit magic or tacticians."

"'Spirit magic,'" The vicar said wryly, shaking his head, "That still rubs me the wrong way. I _do_ hope it doesn't involve raising spirits of the dead?"

"I know people have tried it," Artemis said as Luna began working up a new spell, "But I've never heard of it succeeding, and it was forbidden by both local and Imperial law on every world in the Moon Kingdom."

"I'm glad to hear it," The vicar replied, "Enough of my brethren would call me a heretic for letting myself be involved with this much, even if the _explicit_ text forbids what would be called 'necromancy' in the modern day."

"Your religion forbids magic?" Artemis asked, more than a little bewildered.

"My religion forbids _consorting with demons_," The vicar clarified, "It's generally been thought that 'magic' only came from trafficking with such beings, and thus the history of persecution of witches in the church."

"That's..." Artemis began, not entirely sure of what to say, "That seems kind of horrific. Magic pervaded the Moon Kingdom, culturally and technologically; when I woke up a year ago, the lack of magic in every day use was almost as shocking as the amazing things people have been able to build _without_ it."

"Hah!" The vicar said with a grin, "If you'd showed up a hundred and fifty years ago, you probably would have been disgusted by how primitive everything is. How long ago did you say the Moon Kingdom existed?"

"About ten thousand years," Artemis said, "Long enough that nobody seems to remember it at _all_. I'm kind of surprised that neither of the moon landings found any of the ruins though."

"Well," The vicar replied, starting to lean forward before a scowling Luna pushed him back into place so that she could keep working, "How much of the moon was actually inhabited before the fall?"

"Not much," Artemis admitted, "It was much easier to maintain biospheres on other moons; if I recall my history correctly, the only reason it was the line of Serenity's seat of power, was because during the earlier years of the Moon Kingdom, it _was_ the Moon Kingdom. The humans did all originally come from Earth after all, and it was only due to... I can't really remember the details just yet, but there was _some_ reason that the Moon ended up settling the rest of the system after declaring independence, before the Earth Kingdom got around to it, in spite of being a much lesser power at the time."

"Probably political turmoil," The vicar said with a shrug, "Most great empires destroy themselves with moral rot. Speaking of which, nobody's explained to me what destroyed this Moon Kingdom that you and those girls are supposed to be from."

"_Treachery_," Luna snarled, leaping back off of the vicar's lap as her latest attempt at a spell failed, "And a demonic entity capable of mind-controlling its defeated foes."

"Ouch," The vicar said with a wince, "Is mind control magic actually real?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Artemis said, padding over to Luna to brush up against her reassuringly, "Part of the fall came when the four attendants of Endymion, the heir of the Earth Kingdom, were suborned by the enemy and turned against first the Earth Kingdom, then against us on the moon. All of them were powerful sorcerors, and also commanded significant portions of the Earth Kindgom's military. At a guess, I'd say they were instrumental in its destruction, and after that, _Beryl_," Artemis growled the name out, "Conducted some sort of ritual to allow mass-possession of the people of Earth, and then turned the Youma against us."

"So," The vicar said, an edge in his voice and his eye that had not been there before, "This 'Beryl' _does_ track with demons and possession then?"

"Youma are certainly magical beasts," Artemis ground out, "But I don't know if they fit your religion's definition of 'demon' or not."

"Demons," The vicar said, his voice grim, "Creatures of destruction, corruption, shadow, and darkness, the twisted forms of fallen angels that exist only to drag down, spite, and destroy those who have not yet fallen. Also capable of possessing people."

"In that case," Luna growled, "They _definitely_ fit the definition of demons. Youma are all of those things, and they also can change shape."

"Well then," The vicar said with a grimace, "I'm going to have to tell you to try some of the riskier methods you mentioned. I'm no soldier, but I'm willing to lay down my life to protect God's children in what ways I am able."

((()))

_I don't know what Beryl was thinking when she put me in this cell, but she hasn't done herself any favors. Unsurprisingly, 'maximum security' for the dark kingdom also means 'anti-magic field,' and now, I'm thinking clearly for the first time in months._

_And it's damn near terrifying._

_You can make an entire muscle group completely useless by severing just the tendons that anchor them to the bones on one end; the muscles themselves are operating properly, the tendons on the other end are functioning just fine, but as a whole, the muscle group is rendered utterly incapable of serving its purpose. This is _exactly_ the sort of thing that damn dragon did to my mind. The Dragon's curse (which was as much a geas as a curse) was laid out with the purpose of 'no magic,' and did not merely prevent me from _using_ magic, but prevented me from devising ways to break the curse so that I could use magic then._

_The level of power and control that's needed to affect a mind both so overwhelmingly and subtly without mashing it to paste is insane, but then, it _was_ an Epic Dragon. They're kind of insane by definition._

_Also, I really need to stop picking fights with opponents above my throw-weight. Hopefully, that'll be a feasible option some time soon. Unfortunately, while the cell's AMF was its most immediately noticeable feature, it most certainly was not its _only_ supernatural security element, and I don't think I'm strong enough with Ki techniques yet to try. The counterpoint to that, of course, is the fact that between my confrontations with Beryl, the Dark Generals, and everything else that's happened, I've gained another level, and I can actually spend some Path to learn magic, even if I'll 'forget' how to use it as soon as I step out of my cell._

_Another relevant point; the reason that raising my characteristics with my level hasn't even occurred to me, is because they could affect my magic/Psychic abilities, and the curses wouldn't allow that. The problem is that raising my mental stats won't matter much (except for saves) after I'm out of the AMF, and because of the way Anima runs bonuses, raising my physical stats will have _no_ benefit until I can get them higher still, so raising the mental stats is kind of better anyways, since it would allow me to buff the physical stats to a greater degree._

_On the other hand, just because _I _can't cast the spells, doesn't mean that others can't..._

_Tooling through the glowing 'HUD' I had (which thankfully still worked in the AMF), I put both of my increased attribute points into Intelligence, and then turned my attention towards the Creation and Essence paths. If I was to find the spells that were needed, I would find them in one of the two; Essence dealt with soul/spirit/life manipulation, and Creation dealt with exactly what the name of the path said. If I could find the spells I needed, and some how record them in a format the Senshi would be able to interpret, that would hopefully allow a (relatively) swift resolution to our 'Dark Kingdom' problems._

_I could leave trying to break out of the cell until after I'd finished taking advantage of its features._

((()))

Makoto wasn't really used to having friends any more; and she _certainly_ wasn't used to holding much smaller girls as they cried in her lap. She'd only properly met Jaeger briefly, having seen him laid out unconscious from a near-mortal wound much longer than she'd seen him awake and aware of the world around him. Still, it was clear that the bluenette in her lap had had _much_ more time to bond with the cat, and had done so at considerable length. The cat having only just woke up less than a week before it was either killed or kidnapped probably only made it worse.

"Come on Ami-chan," Makoto said gently, looking for a way to distract the smaller girl, "Let's go check with Hino-san to see if she has been able to find anything."

Ami nodded miserably, and allowed the larger girl to help her to her feet, then lead her from the bedroom of the small apartment in the TMPD headquarters (normally for witness protection) that she was sharing with her mother, into the kitchen, where Rei was trying to use the gas stove as a poor substitute for the Sacred Fire of the Hino shrine, in order to focus her divination attempts. Makoto, judging by the frustration on the miko's face, decided that it probably wasn't going very well.

Ami picked up on the fire-priestess' foul mood as well, and the other two teen girls seated didn't interrupt her attempt to focus, seating themselves at the kitchen table instead, and quietly watching her attempt to work. After nearly ten minutes with no results, Rei cursed quietly under her breath, before turning to stare somewhat balefully at Makoto.

"My grandfather always said that I was unusually attuned to the sacred fire," Rei said, anger covering in her voice the other other emotions which were visible on her face, "I did not understand what he meant until I started trying to use other fires, such as this, to conduct divinations."

"Gomen Hino-san," Ami said, wiping tear streaks from around her eyes before looking up at the taller girl, "Y-your Senshi powers, they are aligned to fire?"

"Yes,"Rei said flatly, "You think that they may help somehow?"

"I-I d-do not know," Ami said hesitantly, "But the essence of the scientific method is experimentation to test hypothesis."

"Um, Ami-chan," Makoto said cautiously, "It's _magic_, not science."

"I-it doesn't matter," Ami said, shaking her head, and with it shaking off some of the hesitance that had been dominating her, "It must operate by _some_ rules, otherwise there would be no point to training, practice, or education about it, all functions of magic would be both arbitrary and mutable, working or not working for no reason whatsoever. If this was the case, then our foes would not be so dangerous, because _their_ magic would be utterly unreliable as well, but they have demonstrated a consistent ability to control it effectively, and thus magic must have rules, and we simply do not know them yet."

Rei and Makoto both _stared_ at Ami for a long, long moment, which was interrupted by a small device materializing in Ami's lap, startling all three of them.

"They said you were extremely smart," Rei said, a thoughtful look on her face, "But you were so shy, that I hadn't really taken that to mean much of anything."

"Ami-chan," Makoto said, a smile spreading slowly over her face, "I think that's the most I've _ever_ heard you say at once, I'm so happy to see you start coming out of your shell!"

A shy smile slowly crept across Ami's features, and Makoto impulsively hugged her.

"Very well then, Mizuno-san," Rei said, nodding respectfully towards the smaller girl, "We shall try things your way."

((()))

_Fortunately, Essence and Creation had what I needed, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough path to get both. Transmigrate Soul, from the Essence path almost certainly would provide the necessary means for removing the 'Rainbow Jewels' from their hosts, and Recreate should be able to fuse them back together into the Ginzuisho. The problem was, both of them were Level 76 spells, and I had 150 Path. _Two_ damn path short of the solution to all of our problems._

_Well, two path and breaking out of the cell I'd been tucked away in and making my way back to Tokyo from the Arctic, all while avoiding recapture on the part of the Dark Generals, but hey, that was the easy stuff, right? Considering what I'd found when I looked into 'Improvised Combat Techniques,' that most likely was actually the case, especially considering that A: my cell was not guarded, and B: it did not block Ki abilities._

_With some of the doors opened to me by using improvised ki techniques (such as teleportation and intangibility), making my escape would be..._ interesting_. So, I made preparations for spell-availability outside of the cell, ran a last mental check of what I could/would need to do in order pull together the Ginzuisho once I reached Tokyo, then turned into a shadowy mist, and slipped out of the cell._

((()))

An alarm sounded throughout the folded dimension in which the last bastion of the Dark Kingdom existed, an alarm that most of Beryl had never thought she would hear, but a small part had been outright expecting. Specifically, it was the alarm keyed to the dungeon's maximum-security cell.

"Guards!" Beryl screamed, "Apprehend the prisoner immediately!"

((()))

_It was easy to tell when they caught on to my escape; I'd only made it up a single level from the dungeon floor I'd been kept on, when Zoicite teleported in in front of me with a batch of Youma. I applied the Ki ability for 'area' to my claws, and swiped at them. They were no fragile infiltrator-types though, and my attack didn't so much as make them blink (that it was useless against Zoicite goes without saying), so I ran like hell._

_Normal cats are Damn Fast. I'm at the physical limit of size for a 'housecat', and I have supernatural speed on top of that. According to my stat-spread, I can run 160 feet per turn, which is three seconds, which comes to 36 miles per hour. Granted, that's in a sprint, but with the Ki ability Elimination of Necessities, I can go ten times as long in a sprint, in a run, without eating, drinking, sleeping, or even shitting. Also, that speed means I can run 150 meters in 9 seconds; cats are faster on the ground than humans anyways, but I think that makes it pretty clear that I beat out Olympian sprinters handily._

_I can keep that pace up for two and a half minutes before I even start tiring out; with a supernaturally strong constitution, I can go for a _long_ damn time; it's most likely that the Dark Generals will run out of Zeon before they can catch me via teleport-and-snatch attempts. When I'd tried to flee from the three generals in Tokyo by exiting via the window, I'd made a mistake; dropping to the ground floor was certainly the fastest way to put distance between me and my assailants, but distance wasn't what mattered (at least not on that scale), _line of sight_ was what mattered._

_And even if the interior of the Dark Kingdom's underground was spacious for a dungeon, it was inherently more crowded than an open street in the middle of Tokyo; I was behind cover and out of sight before Zoicite could snap a spell off, and the Youma were left far, far behind._

_Nephrite teleported in in front of me, anger clear on his face, and a spell already prepared for casting. I hurled myself out of his way, reinforcing my movements with Ki, and dodged mostly out of the way; the shot still nicked me, but I was gone before he could try again. If I'd had the time to accumulate a proper, complete enhancement to my dodge, he'd not have touched. I just had to hope the Beryl wouldn't get directly involved, because _that_ would lead to trouble._

((()))

"Luna!" Rei half-shouted as she stalked into the room where the cat had been sleeping, "I've divined what the problem with your attempts to withdraw the jewels is!"

"What?" The cat snapped sharply, more than a little cranky about having her sleep interrupted, "What is it?"

"You've been trying to withdraw the jewels from their bodies without killing them, yes?" Rei said, and as Luna looked up at the fire Senshi, she saw that the Rei looked just as exhausted and bent out of shape as she felt.

"Yes," Luna said, forcing her voice to 'flat' rather than irritable, "Why?"

"The problem," Rei said, "Is that the jewel-bearers are the reincarnations of the seven great youma, and their souls are sealed within the jewels. Trying to extract the jewels means _extracting their souls._"

Silence reigned in the small room for nearly half a minute, until Makoto and Ami caught up with Rei and entered as well.

"Well, shit," Luna said flatly.

((()))

"You're _blackmailing _us?" Tsukino Ikkuko said incredulously from her seat beside her husband.

"I am doing nothing of the sort," Natsuna replied evenly as she stared across the small conference table at the Tsukino parents, "I have simply told you what your options are."

"Yes," Ikkuko half-shouted, "You've told us that if we don't have our daughter participate in your ridiculously dangerous plans, you'll leave us completely unprotected!"

"No," Natsuna said, if anything appearing even more calm as Ikkuko's temper worsened, "I am entirely willing to provide protection for your daughter, regardless of whether or not she participates in my planned operations against the Dark Kingdom."

"You'll just require her to paint a big target on herself, and sit in the middle of your headquarters!" Ikkuko shouted.

"Miss Tsukino," Natsuna said calmly, "Your daughter has what amounts to the ancient and magical form of, at the least, a main battle tank, and at the most, a _nuclear weapon_, grafted onto her soul. Luna, who freely admits she is at diminished capacity due to stasis-fogged memories, can readily sense the abilities of your daughter and the other Senshi. Our foes have already demonstrated that they are far more magically capable, and as such, it is all but inevitable that they will be able to find the Senshi again, because I will remind you, they already _have_ once."

Natsuna paused to stand, leaning over the table to loom above the Tsukino parents.

"_Further_," She said, her tone harsh, "Your daughter has been reliably identified as the reincarnation of the _heir to the throne_ of our foes ancient adversaries. Which means that she will be _the_ priority target for our foes, once they find her. You _are_ her parents and you _do_ have the legal right to _not_ put her under the protection that I can provide. I will be blunt though; if this whole mess did _not_ involve magic, and I believed I could get a judge to back me up _without_ revealing magic and critical intelligence to the public, and you refused to allow your daughter protection in spite of the immense personal threat she is under, you would lose custody of your children for neglect so fast they'd be gone before you could _blink_."

((()))

Kunzite was _displeased_. He did not make a habit of underestimating his enemies, and after his Queen's words regarding the human cursed into the form of a cat, he thought he'd understood the level of danger that the being did, and did not, represent. It was some form of elite warrior, possessing considerable skill at arms, and beyond that, it apparently was one of those _exceedingly_ rare few who possessed not only the ability to utilize magic, but the powers of the mind as well. He was exceedingly thankful that it had been cursed into near-impotence, because he had vague memories of fighting a rogue nobleman roughly a decade before the Earth Kingdom's fall to Moon Kingdom treachery, a nobleman with Psychic gifts.

It had not been pleasant; while powers controlled by sheer force of will lacked the depth and breadth of magic's potency, the nobleman had displayed an endurance that exceeded that of all but the most powerful casters, and Kunzite had lost half of the strike team he had led to capture the man, including two mages. It had been a sobering day for the Shittenou, and Kunzite _knew_ that he would not have been capable of defeating the man in a duel. Of course, he had also pressed his skills and magical endurance much farther since, but _still, _such was the threat that he remembered it, even ten thousand years gone.

As the infuriatingly elusive cat streaked past him _again, _taking only incidental damage from the bolt of coherent darkness that Kunzite launched at him, the Shittenou _knew_ that whatever _third_ source of power the wretched creature had tapped, it made him _impossibly_ difficult to kill. It was unquestionably on the run; the way that it had not even _attempted_ to engage the Dark Generals or their minions since its first attack had proven useless made it clear the creature by no means thought it could defeat them, but it had taken only light wounds from them at best.

And while the Dark Generals could bend the ambient magical energies around them into casting spells of modest power all day, the _teleportation_ spells they required just to _keep up_ with the cat, required steadily draining their own reserves.

Kunzite's eyes narrowed as he sensed the cat manage another evasion around one of Zoicite's assault, one level closer to the surface. Was it possible that the only reason the creature hadn't yet left their citadel altogether, was for exactly that reason?

((()))

_Kunzite appeared in front of me again, and I damn well hoped they were getting near the bottom of their magical stamina, because I'd taken a pounding. Unfortunately, he also summoned around him a wall of ice; I twisted around, turning to flee in the other direction, but a second wall of ice blocked off the way I'd come. One of the limits of ki-based teleportation is that it's not 'proper' teleportation; it requires clear line-of-sight and line-of-effect, something that I no longer had. I could break down the walls, but it was pretty obvious that he could raise them faster than I'd be able to destroy him, and-_

_He teleported a small swarm of Youma into the room with us, and I snarled, my hand forced._

_Committing my Ki reserves to attack, rather than defense, I lunged at the Dark General._

((()))

Kunzite saw the shift in the cat's posture, from defensive to aggressive, and immediately countered by moving on to the attack himself, something inside him, something deeply enraged and infuriated, drove him to a reckless offense, turning the wholeness of his attention to destroying the feline, with no thought left to defending himself from its attack.

A single lance of deadly shadow leapt from Kunzite's palm.

The cat twisted around it with (literally) inhuman agility, smoothly shifting into a predator's pounce as soon as its paws again touched the ground.

Kunzite threw his head back as he roared in rage, leaving his throat wholly exposed to the creature, his accumulated magical energies spent, unable to form a shield from what remained in time to defend himself.

Supernaturally strong jaws sank into the Dark General's throat, Jaeger's forepaws landing on his shoulders, followed by his rear, before the cat tore his jaw _out_ while he leapt away, taking Kunzite's part of trachea, carotid, and spinal column with him as he left.

The sorcerer was dead before he hit the ground.

((()))

"Shit."

Luna had not been prone to cursing when she was a royal advisor. She really hadn't; and dealing with royalty and nobility on a daily basis had only served to reinforce that behavior pattern; she could not understand why now, associating with royalty again (the _same_ royalty even), she found her patience constantly frayed to the point where she _did_.

Though in fairness to the princesses and the Princess, this time, it was honestly not their fault. In fact it was very much _her_ fault, even if she wished it wasn't.

"I feel like _shit_," The vicar said in a gravelly voice, startlingly distinct from the pleasant tenor he'd possessed before.

_Great, _Luna thought to herself, _Now I'm driving priests to swearing too. Wonderful_.

"I have to say," The vicar continued, his voice grinding like rocks on boulders as he examined his altered form, "I don't think I'm going to be able to conduct a service this Sunday."

The man, a Brit by birth, appeared to have a penchant for understatement; his hair had turned orange, the shape of his entire face had changed (including his eyes turning a luminescent red), he'd gained about half a foot in height as well as at _least_ a hundred pounds of muscle, his skin had become unnaturally pale, and he'd grown _wings _the same bright orange as his hair. There was also the matter of the brilliant orange gem imbedded in his chest, which glowed with a fierce light.

"You're not dead," Rei said harshly as she stared up at the transformed man, "The price you have paid for your gem to be extracted is less than that which my grandfather did. You can handle a little pain."

"Fair enough girl," The transformed vicar rumbled, a sliver of irritation throwing through the usual patience in his tone, "Fair enough."

((()))

_Fortunately, once I'd taken Kunzite out of the picture (which should _not_ have been that easy)_, _the other two generals switched over to sending swarms of Youma after me, rather than engaging directly. The Youma were much less of a threat than the Dark Generals, but still not something I could afford to just ignore. I had a definite skill edge on the standard thug-types they sent after me, but my claws and fangs literally could not meaningfully wound them, something I found confusing given how 'easily' I'd downed Kunzite._

_It became pretty clear after just a couple of minutes of trying to avoid a decisive engagement with them within the halls, that the Dark Generals were trying to turn my own strategy against me; wear me out. I was better than the Youma (except for actual ability to _hurt_ them), but not _that_ much better, and I was still burning Ki to avoid taking more damage. The Dark Generals had managed to wound me several times despite my ki-enhanced evasion, and it wouldn't take much more to effectively cripple me._

_Turning around a final corner brought me to a massive chamber with a pair of immense, ornate doors at the far side; I blitzed across the chambers, Youma pouring in both behind me and from other entrances, then diffused into a mist and slipped through the doors' archaic keyhole. Beyond, I found myself in a cavern of ice, the temperature brutally cold. I dropped to a mere 'jog' through the ice-cavern in order to conserve my stamina, but less than half a minutes after I had passed through the keyhole, the door opened behind me, and Youma began to pursue. I was faster than the common forms, but the fliers were gaining on me, even after I increased my pace to a run again._

_I did _not_ want to risk death at the hands of an enraged Beryl if I was recaptured; I doubted she'd risk me escaping a second time. It was time to get _creative_._

((()))

"...Are those _puppets?_" Nephrite said in disbelief as he tracked the escapee running through their halls via scrying.

"Made of ice, it would appear," Zoicite said, his voice frigid with rage, "It would appear that this creature is of a vampiric nature itself."

"That _would_ explain the vast array of abilities it possesses," Beryl said, her voice unusually thoughtful, "Magical potential appears in a mere one in ten thousand, and Pscychic potential is considerably more rare. You are both forbidden from engaging him in close until such time as we can ascertain how he has used this ability to circumvent the curses laid upon him."

"Curses most likely laid by a being that wished to avoid such a fate itself," Nephrite surmised.

The trio watched as the cat deftly carved another small figurine out of the ice sheet he was running across with his claws, blood from one of the wounds on his flank leaking onto the surprisingly well-formed mannequin. After pausing for less than a dozen seconds to shape the figure, the cat began to ran again; behind him, the miniature humanoid shivered, then took to the air behind him, rising up to join the half-dozen others in harrying a flying Youma as it attempted a fly-by attack on the oversized cat.

"That it struck Kunzite down was no mere happenstance," Beryl declared, the imperious note her subordinates were accustomed to returning to her voice, "Ice was _his_ domain, and he would have been best suited to running the beast down. Zoicite!" She turned to face the named general, :"Continue to command the pursuit, directing all of our flying Youma to the task; they will either defeat it, or harry it until it drops of exhaustion. Nephrite!" She turned to her other surviving general, "Maintain your surveillance of the creature, and if it should survive to escape the domain it has stolen from my vassal Kunzite, strike it at once!"

An imperious flick of her fingers indicated that the two had been dismissed, and they hastily departed the throne room, glad that they had not taken the blame for the creature managing to bypass their every attempt to recapture it thus far.

((()))

"Excuse me, but you are Nishimura Reika, correct?" The police officer asked.

"Y-yes?" Said redhead, standing in the doorway of her apartment, said somewhat nervously.

"You're not in any kind of trouble with the law," The officer said, "However, have you heard of the recent bombing at the Hikawa Shrine?"

"I have," Reika said, nervousness fading but leaving a trace of fear behind, "Why do you ask?"

"We in the TMPD believe we have identified the intended target list of the organization behind the attack," The officer said sympathetically, "Unfortunately, you may be one of said targets."

"Wh-WHAT?" The young woman half-shrieked, "Why would _anyone_ want to target me?"

"That would be a classified part of the ongoing investigation," The officer said, reaching out to lay a reassuring hand on the shocked woman's shoulder, "As it involves you, the TMPD is very much willing to fill you in on the details, but not in such a public venue. If you'd be willing to accompany me back to HQ, we are willing to brief you, and arrange for protection."

"Of course," Reika agreed immediately, reaching back into her apartment to grab her jacket.

((()))

_Whichever element it was that I used to discourage pursuit, it worked. I'll likely never know if it was the Zeon-draining, the constant evasion tactics, or killing Kunzite (something about how easily he died _still_ rubs me the wrong way), but it worked, and I'm relatively home-free. The flying Youma have been a small problem, but they backed off when my swarm was about halfway complete, and aside from reinforcements forming up with them, they haven't troubled me for several hours._

_They're probably waiting for the cold to get to me; unfortunately for them, I could _literally_ run for days, and while it was damn cold up here in Arctic, it was October, not January, so it wasn't _that_ cold. Maine Coons have heavy, shaggy fur in the first place, and when you topped that off with me being considerably oversized for a cat, possessing a literally supernaturally strong constitution, and the heat my body generated on the run, the cold actually felt rather bracing. Night would change that though, the temperature would drop at _least_ another twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and if the current temperature felt 'brisk' at a full run, I had few illusions about my ability to survive deeper cold for any duration._

_I would need to stop and, at the very least, tunnel myself an enclosure in the ice to retain my body heat, which meant getting rid of the flying Youma, because even if they were nothing more than brute beasts, they would attack if I stopped, sensing weakness. I was making about twenty miles per hour now that I'd finished pausing every now and then to craft the puppet swarm, and judging by the movement of the sun, it would be about two and a half hours until the sun set; I needed to find a bolt-hole, and as soon as reasonably possible._

((()))

Nephrite was the Shittenou of the sky, the Lord of Thunder (a title he felt he had well-earned), and possibly due to his lofty demesne, he had also developed a fascination with the stars and divination. The pursuit had led him many places, and amongst them...

No, he needed to focus on the task at hand; the Queen's temper was bad enough due to the cat's escape; he couldn't afford to let it escape from his sight as well, lest she emasculate him. Fortunately, it appeared that things would finally take a turn for the interesting, as watching the feline lope across the icepack for months simply wasn't that interesting. The small figurines of ice that the cat had carved ameliorated things somewhat; like all members of the Earth Kingdom nobility (those worth knowing at any rate), Nephrite had an appreciation for the arts, and while he would not describe the combat-puppets that Jaeger used as 'exquisite,' they were certainly skilled pieces.

That he had somehow produced more than fifty in less than an hour made the quality of their crafting much more impressive; he would be interested in seeing what the creature could make when he had more time to handle things with care, and no need to turn them towards a militant purpose. Once he had submitted to the proper rulership of the Dark Kingdom, of course.

Nephrite's thoughts were interrupted by the ice abruptly caving in beneath Jaeger, sending the feline dropping down into an ice cave. Before he had fallen even a dozen feet, the puppet swarm that had been tailing him swooped in and took hold of him, arresting his fall, and carrying him swiftly and gracefully down to the cavern's snowy floor. It did not escape the Dark General's notice that the cat had not so much as flinched; Jaeger had not so much 'swiftly regained' his equilibrium, as never lost it in the first place.

Jaeger _did_ react when the flying Youma that had been tracking him for some time dove in through the hole into the ice chamber, and began trying to strafe him. Their assault was impeded by the ice cave's complex internal structure; it was at least sixty feet high and double that across, the ceiling raising from the floor in a gradual arch-shape, with irregular and angled columns and arches of ice joining the ceiling to the floor. The internal structures were not so dense as to prevent the Youma from flying within the cave at all, but the creatures ability to maneuver was heavily inhibited.

Something that the large cat took ruthless of advantage, leaping up from the floor of the cave, onto the top of one of the arches just as the first Youma came slashing down at it, leaving its swarm of icy marionettes to intercept the creature instead. The swarm and the Youma slashed past each other, claws and icy blades slashing; the Youma came out the worse, its resistance to mundane weapons giving it no defense against the animated puppets' razor-sharp icy limbs. A second Youma tried to make a pass at the cat while it was 'distracted' by the first, but the cat evaded and countered its assault with almost contemptuous ease, its marionettes shredding the second beast's head.

That youma disintegrated into ashen dust, its inertia scattering a cloud of gray and black further into the cave, frightening the other Youma into breaking off their attacks as the cat contemptuously flicked its tail at themp.

Something within Nephrite's heart stirred as he watched the engagement, and wondered what Zoicite would direct the Youma to do next.

((()))

_Too easy. Apparently the Dark Kingdom went with the 'budget option' when either creating or training their flying Youma, because they're neither as tough nor as skilled as their ground-bound forces. I didn't even manage to _hurt_ any of those, though that may in part be due to the puppets being able to deal more damage than my claws and fangs. Either way, that was two Youma down, and I hadn't even touched my replenished Ki reserves yet; that'll be for the next round I think, and we'll see how that goes._

((()))

Nephrite had heard the phrase 'graceful as a cat' many times in his life, and as many of the nobility of the Earth Kingdom (particularly the ladies) favored them as pets, he'd also had plenty of opportunities to see _why_ the phrase had been coined. As he watched the surviving winged Youma (less than a dozen) attempt to bring down the cat, he gained an understanding of why cats were also renowned as _predators_.

The third Youma to engage managed an exchange of blows as it flitted past, a fourth failed to engage as Jaeger ascended further into the internal icy structure of the cage, while the fifth Youma slammed head-on into the puppet swarm, and was torn to shreds. The cat hissed triumphantly, before ghosting off further into the three dimensional maze that the cave formed. Nephrite watched, as the cat danced about the cavern, and though the Youma were capable of true flight and Jaeger was not, the creature still proved itself the more mobile, the more agile, and most definitely, the most _powerful_.

The battle was not utterly one-sided; the Youma managed to destroy _some_ of the cat's frigid minions, but none of them landed a hit directly on the cat himself. Whenever the cat struck, on the other hand, or rather its puppets struck _for_ it, the creature itself directing them (_as a general directs his forces_, part of Nephrite's mind whispered), to _devastating _effect. Not every blow that it struck was immediately fatal, but after the fourth that _was_, leaving six (half of the original contingent) dead in total, the Youma finally turned to flee.

Not that Jaeger simply _let_ them leave. It slew the two wounded Youma, as well as brutally shredding a third, before the survivors were able to retreat the way that they had come, rising out of the hole in the cavern roof that the cat had originally fallen through. As he watched the victorious feline retreat back into the cavern and begin moving into the lesser tunnels that it connected to, something within Nephrite stirred, an odd feeling, something that he was no longer as familiar with as he had once been.

_Anticipation_.

((()))

"I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today," Natsuna began as she addressed the five remaining jewel-bearers, "Or perhaps, how the Hikawa shrine bombing relates to _you_."

"It's because we're all the reincarnations of powerful warrior spirits in past lives," The youngest of the five said calmly, "And the kingdom our past selves were part of has returned to subjugate earth."

Every person present in the room, including the boy's parents seated on either side of him, turned and simply _stared_ at the boy, Urawa Ryo, who was only fourteen years old.

"How did you know?" Natsuna asked neutrally, the first to recover from the boy's abrupt announcement.

"I'm precognitive," Ryo said, his voice just as calm as Natsuna's, though the sharper observers in the room noted that he was shaking slightly in his seat, "_Because_ I'm such a reincarnation. You've gathered us here to attempt to reunite the jewel shards that were used to seal our past selves away, in order to restore something important to defeating the Dark Kingdom."

"'Something'?" Natsuna asked.

"I don't know what," Ryo said, shaking his head a touch frantically, "I-I don't see _everything_, and it's hard to focus on something I've caught glimpses of, unless it directly affects me in the next few days. Bigger things are easier to see, but the further out they are, the harder."

"That's quite a claim," Natsuna said, glancing at the boys parents, still too shocked for words, "How can I know you aren't an infiltrator from the Dark Kingdom? We already know they have shape-shifters."

"Send in the cats," Ryo said, his voice steady even as his face slowly paled, "If what I've seen is right, they should be able to tell you."

Natsuna gestured to one of her aides, who pressed a button on his pager, and a moment later the door to the secure conference room opened, and three of the Senshi, accompanied by Artemis and Luna, walked in.

"Luna, Artemis," Natsuna said, "If you would check out young Urawa for me?"

"Of course," Artemis said, and the pair of Mau hopped up onto the table as most of the room's occupants started in shock at seeing a cat speak, "What of the others?"

"Might as well check them too," Natsuna said with a casual shrug, "The other four at the table who _aren't_ Urasawa's parents should be the other four clan champions."

"On it," Artemis said, hastily moving towards Ryo before Luna could, intent on saving him from the other Mau's bad mood.

"That cat just _talked!_" Reika burst out, staring at the black and white felines in shocked disbelief.

"You don't think that the Superintendent-general of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would buy into a magical conspiracy theory on just a whim, did you?" Natsuna asked, raising a delicate eyebrow towards the younger woman.

Reika shook her head and turned away, blushing. Natsuna in turn smiled gently, before turning to meet the eyes of every other person in the room.

"Make no mistake," Natsuna said, her tone serious, but not unkind, "This threat is _deadly_ serious, even if it fits outside of what most of you are willing to accept as 'real.' In order to drive the point home, in a few minutes, we will be adjourning to the firing range in this building's basement so that you can watch the Senshi here engage in target practice, and after _that_, I will be taking you all to the remnants of the Hikawa shrine, so you can see just how dangerous our foes are."

((()))

_Level five. If I _wasn't_ barred from both magic and psychic powers at this point, I would be powerful enough now to take on small armies by myself. Granted, it would take a _lot_ of time, and depend on me having the initiative against an enemy's air and artillery assets, but it _would_ be reasonably possible. As it is, I'm so crippled that I don't even know _why_ I'm confident that I could do that, because the practical knowledge is barred my mind. The _conscious_ practical knowledge, anyways._

_And now I realize that even being aware that my mind is being messed with is something that has changed since I was in that cell. Ironically, this may mean that Beryl has done me a tremendous favor, something that yet remains to be seen. Still, even with my enforced power inhibition, there were possibilities._

_Picking up Energy Armor, some low-mid level protection against energy attacks (such as the generals' darkness beams) was certainly one of them. Picking up characteristic augmentation, allowing to push my basic physical abilities even further, was also one of them. Being able to shapeshift to human form would have definite advantages, but then, so would picking up Energy Immunity: Cold right now, even if it's only a resistance, not an immunity. So many things to choose from, so little Martial Knowledge to spread around._

_...Of course, the obvious answer was to just cheat the system. Since as a cat, I'd never picked a 'starting' weapon proficiency or martial art, my little cheaty-plan _should_ work. I picked up Physical Change and Greater Physical Change, which would allow me to transform into literally anything up to about the size of a bear. With my intense Ki Recovery, I could even maintain the change indefinitely (though I didn't know if it would remain active while I slept); most importantly though, it would let me take on a human form._

_So then I picked up both the Basic and Expert levels of Tai Chi, giving me back sixty percent of the MK I spent on Physical Change, allowing me to pick up lesser and greater Characteristic Augmentation, and the most basic form of Energy Armor. It wasn't ideal, but it would hopefully be _sufficient_. And it added breadth to my abilities, whereas just pumping my attack and defense regularly would add depth. Of course, keeping those cards hidden for as long as I reasonably could was also pretty damn important._

_As a final tidbit, I pumped the DP I had remaining into Sleight of Hand and distributed my other miscellaneous skill bonuses. It left me with at _very_ high perception ability, my puppet-making skill was tweaked a little further, and perhaps most importantly, I could now make a reasonable attempt at batting beams of magic out of the air with my bare paws._

_Then I curled up for the night to rest._

((()))


	6. Catman of the Apocalypse

AN: This should be the penultimate chapter. The next will be a _long_ one though.

((()))

Nephrite slept while the cat did, though when he awakened to track it again the next day, he discovered to his _considerable_ surprise, that it had already been traveling for some tim. And its pace had more than doubled. Further, it looked to have healed from the damage it had taken during its escape uncommonly fast, for a creature barred from magic (though that curse seemed more and more irrelevant as each hour passed), and its puppet swarm had regained its lost members.

_The Queen must know of this at once_, Nephrite decided.

((()))

"My aides tell me there is something you want to tell me, Urawa-kun?" Natsuna said as the junior-higher entered her rather luxurious office late the evening after she'd brought the jewel-bearers in for protection.

"Yes, Sakurada-sama," Ryo said, "It is regarding the things I have been able to foresee with my talents."

"I'd assumed as much," Natsuna said, gesturing for the boy to seat himself, "Though I am surprised you've come to see me without your parents present."

"Their presence would only make things more difficult," Ryo said somewhat sadly, "So I slipped away from them. There was a third cat, much larger than the other two, wasn't there Sakurada-sama?"

"There was," Natsuna said, nodding slowly, her eyes locked onto the younger boy's, "I assume you have foreseen something relating to this?"

"Yes," Ryo said, nodding decisively, "If he was taken by the Dark Kingdom, then that means that they will have their hands full trying to keep him from escaping for the next few days, and you should be free to move while they aren't using divination to search for you or those of us reincarnated from the time before."

"How certain of this are you?" Natsuna asked, allowing a sliver of the authority she could bring to bear into her voice.

"Every future I've seen that doesn't involve everybody dying," Ryo said, his voice cracking slightly, "The big cat escapes, and we meet with him somewhere in Malaysia."

"In _Malaysia?_" Natsuna asked, curious at the sudden and unexpected turn the conversation had taken, "Why would 'we' meet with him there, and who all does 'we' include?"

"You, some of your men, I don't know which, all of the Senshi, all of us jewel-bearers, and there will be at least some of the Malaysian police, some JSDF, and some USJF there. And a giant metal cat."

"I see," Natsuna said quietly raising an eyebrow at the final mention, "Do you know when or why we meet him there?"

"No," Ryo said, shaking his head a bit nervously, "I just know that it's evening, sometime this month, and that I can't see anything after it one way or another. I _think_ that someone there will know how to reunite the jewels, and I _think_ the Dark Kingdom shows up as well, but I'm not _sure_. My visions can vary a lot, and I usually have to pick out what's common across all of them."

"Just how much do your visions about this visit to Malaysia vary?" Natsuna asked, reaching down under her desk to pull her shoes on.

"In some," Ryo said cautiously, "There's no fighting, you meet with the cat, and I can't really see beyond that. In some, there's a _lot_ of fighting, including a naval battle sometimes, with an entire aircraft carrier involved, or sometimes just a torpedo boat."

"That's a great deal of variance," Natsuna said thoughtfully, standing up as she did so, "If I were to show you some faces of people who might be there, do you think you'd be able to recognize them."

"Maybe," Ryo said, more nervous as the beautiful older woman moved around her desk, "It depends on how important they are, or likely to be there. Sometimes I see faces clearly, sometimes just the shape of a person."

"Well then, Ryo-kun," Natsuna said, a gentle smile slipping into place on her face, "Come and let me show you something that may be relevant to your visions.'

"Hai, Sakurada-sama," Ryo said, standing and nodding respectfully, "What is it?"

"I'll let that be a surprise," Natsuna said as she opened the door, and led the junior-higher into the outer office, glancing at her secretary as they passed through, "Eika-chan, please lean on Burkhalter's aide some more, I may need to meet with him very soon."

"Hai, Natsuna-san," Eika replied, nodding dutifully as she began paging through her phone book for the requisite number.

Natsuna began humming a happy tune as they departed her office, a pair of TMPD officers in plainclothes who'd been sitting in the break-room immediately outside of it standing and falling in to flank her as she departed, leading Ryo towards the nearest elevator. Several times as they rode down, Ryo tried to work up the courage to ask where they were going, but even though Natsuna certainly had never been _hostile_, her sheer presence, beauty, and social authority still intimidated the hell out of him.

Fortunately for his nerves, the ride didn't take long, and they only traversed a moderate length of corridor once they reached the basement, ending up in a secondary garage near the building's vehicle bay. The secondary garage wasn't very large, only intended to host perhaps ten or twelve vehicles, but when Ryo entered it he only found two within, because the rest of the space was taken up by an enormous, hulking shape, covered by a large beige tarp.

"Does this look familiar?" Natsuna asked as she pulled a tarp down, revealing an enormous steel construct in the shape of a cat.

"_Yes_," Ryo breathed out, staring up at the construct's head, his eyes wide with awe, "I hadn't realized it was so _big_ though."

"That's what I thought," Natsuna said, just a hint of smugness in her smile and voice.

((()))

"We have been made _fools_ of," Beryl snarled as she stared at Nephrite's divination sphere, showing the cat blazing southward through the Arctic at forty miles (or sixty-four kilometers) per hour.

"So it would seem," Zoicite ground out, his face a stony mask as he watched the cat's limbs blur across the ice, "If the _creature_ had utilized this speed, we never would have been able to capture it in the first place, much less the discorporation and teleportation abilities it apparently possesses."

"A well-laid trap," Nephrite said coolly, "Placing such powerful curses on the creature purely to establish a cover story was a level of deceit only the Moon Kingdom would be capable of carrying out."

"_Serenity_," Beryl spat out, "Must have awakened. Only _she_ could dream up such treachery, and further, have the hubris to think it would succeed."

Neither of the generals dare suggest that with Kunzite's death, it had, at least in part, succeeded already.

"Zoicite," Beryl snapped out harshly, "You will immediately begin to awaken as many Youma as possible. Once you have expended all available energy reserves, begin raiding the primitive settlements that are spread throughout the nearest of these icy wastes."

"By your command, my queen," Zoicite immediately replied, bowing as he spoke, before disappearing in a flash of teleportation.

"Nephrite," Beryl continued, turning towards her other surviving subordinate, "As soon as this 'Jaeger' reaches a settlement of note, you will stage an assault with the remaining six flying Youma, and two dozen common Youma. You will push him, and push him _hard_, but allow him to think he has won, and make use of your shadow to let him think that he has defeated and slain you. I want him to think that he has escaped our attentions."

"Of course, my queen," Nephrite replied with a sharp salute.

"And then," Beryl hissed, turning her attention back to the Maine Coon as it streaked across the Arctic Ice, "You will lead us right back to your mistress, little wretch, that I may _slay_ her."

((()))

A knock sounded on the door of the Senshi's 'room,' attracting the attention of all five of the girls. Rei had been attempting to meditate using a scented candle as a focus, while Ami had been tutoring the rest on their schoolwork. Usagi in particular welcomed the distraction; while working with the blue-haired senshi was considerably more engaging than trying to do so alone, she still did not feel that academic work suited her.

"Come in!" Minako called, the most sociable of the Senshi readily taking the initiative.

Urawa Ryo opened the door and stepped in, smiling somewhat hesitantly at the assembled teenage girls.

"Hello," He said, sketching a short, slightly jerky bow, "I am Urawa Ryo, is this a good time for me to speak with all of you?"

"Yes!" Usagi said decisively before anybody else could speak, putting on a bright smile as she greeted the boy, "It's nice to meet you, Ryo-kun, how are you today?"

"I am well, Tsukino-san," Ryo said, "It is good to see that you are doing well. Did you know that we attend the same school?"

Usagi blushed and opened her mouth, but ended up looking away, feeling too awkward about not having recognized the boy to form an immediate response.

"Hai," Ami put in quietly, nodding respectfully towards the boy, a small smile gracing her delicate features, "You are in class 1-C, and you are the second highest scorer on tests in the school. It is nice to finally meet you, Urawa-san."

The boy opened his mouth to speak, but only stuttering attempts at enunciation came out, as his face turned a bright, _bright_ red.

"_Someone's_ got an admirer," Minako whispered rather un-subtly in Usagi's ear.

((()))

'_Alert.' Apparently it's the name of the first human inhabitation I've found in my southward drive from the North Pole, and with my newly enhanced speed, I've reached it on my second day. Forty miles per hour might not seem like a hole lot to those accustomed to traveling on highways; the next time you're doing forty try opening the car door, sticking your head out, and lowering it down to about a foot off the surface of the road._

_Then you will know the _true_ meaning of speed._

_All that aside, it was still dark by the time I reached the settlement; October was at least a month shy of the 'full dark' part of the seasonal cycle in the Arctic Circle, but that didn't mean that days weren't damn short anyways. I was starting to lose feeling in my paws, which meant that I was dangerously cold by the time I arrived, but as there were lights on, and I could see the Ki-signatures of humans even through the metal walls of Alert's buildings, I knew I'd soon have some refuge from that particular threat._

((()))

Lieutenant Matt Greenwood was one of the 'nerds' of the Canadian Forces Station Alert, an 'intelligence weenie' who specialized in decryption of the signals picked up by the remote facility's sensitive radio-interception equipment. Like many of the more skilled specialists in his field, he had a passionate enthusiasm for prying useful information out of raw data that most people found absolutely bewildering; he himself found their lack of appreciation for the challenge of data extraction to be just as incomprehensible.

Like most other CF personnel stationed at Alert though, he quite appreciated a hot thermos of tea/coffee/hot chocolate, some company, and a view of the stars from just far enough away from the base's perimeter to avoid most of its (mild) light pollution. Some of the support personnel who'd only recently transferred up were too afraid of the local wolf-pack to go out alone, but as someone who'd actually gone through boot camp and was, in fact, a commissioned officer, even if his command was a desk, a computer, and the electronics it connected to, he was more than comfortable enough with his service pistol not to fear the predators.

Besides, the few times he'd had a direct encounter with the wolves, they seemed more _amused_ by the presence of the humans than anything else, and recognized another predator species well enough not to bother or harass them. Which didn't mean that Matt didn't respect them enough not to lay his gloved hand on the sidearm beneath his coat as he saw a bounding shape approaching across the ice out of the North.

"Small one," He commented, nodding towards the approaching animal, "Maybe a lost pup?"

"Not moving right," Aippaq, one of the Inuit guides that the CF kept on retainer in the area replied, "It does not have the legs of a wolf. We'll see what it is when it gets closer."

"I guess," Matt said, his curiosity piqued, "Doesn't look like a fox to me either though."

"It is not," Aippaq said, watching as the creature closed, "It is a cat. And most likely a spirit-cat at that, it is moving too fast for a normal creature."

"A cat?" Matt said, leaning forward as the cat began slowing its approach, twisting his head side to side as he tried to get a better handle on its distance and size in the moonlight, "Isn't it awfully big for a cat?"

"As I said," Aippaq said, nodding again, "A spirit cat."

By the time it reached them, the cat had slowed to a trot, and it didn't do more than glance up at them before continuing on into Alert, moving directly towards the nearest building. Aippaq called something in the Inuit tongue, and the cat stopped, turning to look at the Inuit, tilting its head to the side curiously as it stared at them. Matt didn't know what Aippaq said, but his attention wasn't on the tracker anyways; the cat was _huge_, larger than any that Matt had even seen before, even if he discounted its long, shaggy fur.

Aippaq spoke again, and the cat turned around fully, trotting up to the Inuit, before leaping up onto the stocky man's shoulder, shaking snow and ice from his fur, then burrowing into the man's jacket.

"The spirit is cold," Aippaq said in English, and Matt boggled at how calmly the Inuit was reacting to the situation at hand, "I will take him inside."

Aippaq was half way to the base's mess hall before Matt recovered enough to follow.

((()))

"A military base, eh?" Nephrite said, the hint of a fierce grin touching his features, "This should be _interesting_."

((()))

"_That_," Declared Corporal Seagreen, the primary cook on shift in the kitchen, "Is a _big_ cat."

"He is also a hungry cat, Corporal," Aippaq said calmly, "And I believe he may be an emissary of the spirits. I would appreciate it greatly if you would feed him."

"I thought you thought he was a spirit-cat?" Matt asked.

"I did," Aippaq said, "But the spirits here would not be troubled by the cold. He clearly is not a normal cat though."

"I suppose that would make a certain kind of sense," Matt said with a shrug, "I still just think he's just a big cat though."

"No," Aippaq said as he unzipped his jacket partway, allowing the cat to slip the rest of the way out onto one of the mess tables, before removing the outer garment in its entirety, "His eyes hold too much intelligence for a normal animal."

The cat rolled its eyes, before fishing around in the thick, shaggy fur around its neck to pull out a collar and name-tag, which had an oriental pictographic character on it, neither of those close enough to see it wasn't sure which language it was from.

"There is no way in _hell_ that that is a house-cat," Matt declared, "Not at that size."

"Maybe it's a show-cat?" Corporal Seagreen offered from behind the kitchen's counter.

"How the hell would a show cat get all the way up _here?_" Matt asked.

"The same way a house cat would," Aippaq said, a faint smile on his face, "By not being one in the first place."

"That doesn't even make any-"

Lieutenant Greenwood was cut of by some _thing_ appearing beside him. In a flurry of motion before the humans in the room were even fully aware that something had just appeared out of thin air, the cat leapt onto the creature's head, claws glowing with a brilliant red energy, and literally tore the head apart, leaving the creature itself to briefly thrash about, before dissolving into ash.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Matt said, swiftly drawing his sidearm as his eyes shifted back and forth between staring at the cat-created pile of ash, and around the galley at large, "What the _hell-_"

Another monstrosity appeared, and began to brawl with the cat, lasting slightly longer before it was torn to shreds as well. Corporal Seagreen wisely slammed the Big Red Button in the kitchen raising the General Quarters alarm for the base.

((()))

Nephrite himself appeared in the precise geographic center of Alert; unfortunately for him, this was _not_ within the grounds of the CFS Alert base, but within the scientific complex that formed the rest of the settlement. It was more unfortunate for the civilians living in said complex, as they had no meaningful ability to protect themselves from the Dark General or the dozen bodyguard Youma he had ported in with himself.

Even _more_ unfortunately for Nephrite, it gave the Canadian Forces, and the smaller American at their smaller monitoring station nearby, the time they needed to arm themselves and coordinate a meaningful response.

((()))

"Sir!" Greenwood shouted into the kitchen's intra-base phone, "Local expert says only explosives and heavy weapons will be effective against the hostiles, though if we see fliers, they may be vulnerable to small arms fire."

"Who the hell is this expert?" Lieutenant Colonel Pine, the CFS Alert's base commander demanded.

"No name yet," Greenwood replied as he stared down at the message the cat had gouged into the _stainless steel_ kitchen counter with its claws, "But Aippaq vouches for him."

"Put this damn expert on the line," Pine demanded, "I want to hear it for myself."

"Doesn't speak English or French sir," Greenwood said with a wince, then started as another monster appeared in the middle of the kitchen, directly behind the cat, "Another one just appeared here, gotta go sir!"

The cat, again, butchered the creature almost before Greenwood had finished hanging up, but he was more interested in trying to keep his CO from deciding that the intel was from an untrustworthy source, than helping the cat fight.

"Well," Seagreen said as he stared at the pile of ash on the floor of his kitchen, "...I don't know what to say to that."

"And that's why you're a Corporal, and I'm a Lieutenant," Greenwood said promptly, "Get your sidearm, put your jacket on, and get outside to form up with the rest of the company."

Pulling his jacket back on, Greenwood followed his own instructions, Aippaq and the cat moving out with him.

((()))

In proper military parlance, what happened at Alert wasn't a battle, it was a skirmish, or perhaps more accurately a probing raid. There were no major formations deployed by either side, the Dark Kingdom had no intention of taking and holding territory, and perhaps more importantly, of the three 'strategic assets' in play (Jaeger as a bearer of critical intelligence, CFS Alert as a monitoring/E-war station, and Nephrite as a magical super-weapon), only Nephrite was a direct-force 'tool.'

Which he demonstrated once he caught sight of Jaeger moving outdoors, by turning half of the Alert into a five hundred meter crater with a single spell. The civilian research facilities were completely obliterated, roughly half of the CF base was destroyed (including the command post that Lieutenant-Colonel Pine was operating out of), and a handful of Youma were destroyed as well. Only the American installation was spared, and that purely by the fact that it was by far the smallest part of Alert, and on the opposite side of the Canadian Forces base from the civilian area where Nephrite had arrived.

For a long moment, both sides were stunned by the sheer scale of the not-explosive detonation Nephrite had created, and the Dark General himself laughed madly as his foes beheld him with horror. His laughter was cut short, however, as the vast majority of surviving soldiers on the base had been granted a clear line-of-sight on the Dark General, realized that he was the source of destruction, and opened fire on him.

Nearly a hundred and fifty small arms opened up on Nephrite, and seconds later, the 7.62 mm machine gun and 12.7 mm machine gun pair mounted to an AVGP Grizzly opened up on the man. Shadowy shields of energy, visible by the light of shells smashing themselves against them, protected the Dark General for long seconds, but as both the heavier vehicle-mounted weapons, and the pistols and assault rifles used by the Canadian infantry tracked to home in on the man more accurately, the shields began to erode away.

Within thirteen seconds of the detonation, the laughing figure standing in the open was overwhelmed by fire, and disintegrated into ash. The handful of ground-bound Youma that still survived fled upon their leader's death, running off into the icy wastes around the camp, and the Grizzly fired up its engines in preparation for moving out in pursuit.

((()))

Ami blushed.

Ryo blushed.

Minako chortled.

"It's just a pot of tea!" Rei exclaimed, seizing it from between the two, and coincidentally ending the accidental contact between their hands from when they'd both tried to reach for it at the same time, "Now Ryo, didn't you say that you had something important to tell us?"

"Yes," Ryo said, shaking his head and taking on a much more serious demeanor, "Mizuno-san, a, er, _magically_ powerful computer appeared for you recently, yes?"

Ami nodded, trying to fight down her blush.

"There should be a great wealth of information on magic available there," Ryo said, his tone turning grim, "Unless Tsukino-san learns some of the purification magic, and at least one of you all learns some of the healing magic, we will most likely all die, and Mizuno-san's cat certainly will."

((()))

"Alright cat," Greenwood said, glaring down at the smaller creature as he dragged a chair around one of the mess hall tables and plopped down in it, "Now tell me what the _hell_ is going on."

The cat made a hacking, coughing sound, followed by a series of chitters, rasps, and then what sounded vaguely like attempts to speak, before giving up and hissing in apparent frustration. It then leapt up onto the table between them, and began to scratch out words in English with one of its claws.

'Would you rather I communicate like this,' It asked, 'Or procure pencil and paper?'

"Half or more of Alert's inhabitants are dead," Greenwood said flatly, "I don't have the damn time to send a private for office supplies."

'Very well then,' the cat wrote out, staring directly up at the Lieutenant as he did so, 'The man was called 'Nephrite,' and is one of the three known surviving leaders of an aristocratic magocracy that ruled the Earth before currently-recorded history. When they woke back up they were less than happy to find someone else had 'usurped' their rule, and are looking for the magical artifacts they need to reassert their rule via force. Odds are good that the dark magical force backing their play will turn them all to destructive ends, depopulating the planet if they win.'

"Sounds like bullshit," Greenwood said flatly, "The same kind of bullshit that just leveled half of Alert. Why are they _here?_"

'For reasons unknown to me, their base is up in the Arctic ice. I escaped imprisonment there, and this is the first settlement I found. I thought I had eluded pursuit when I killed most of their fliers, but apparently they were tracking me via scrying.'

"And why did they have you captive?" Greenwood pressed.

'Ask the Americans about the Hikawa shrine bombing in Tokyo,' The cat wrote out, 'I was part of the team acting in response to that. I recommend aerial evacuation of the site as soon as possible, as they have no reliable means of intercepting aircraft in flight.'

"Major Oak," Greenwood ground out, "The ranking _surviving_ officer here, is already calling for reinforcements. If he follows my recommendation, you'll be on the first plane out of Alert."

((()))

The Mizuno apartment had been essentially abandoned for days; Ami had already been moved to the TMPD HQ for her own protection, and after the attack that had removed Jaeger from the apartment, Saeko had stopped spending time there either, leaving it sealed off by the police as a crime scene. Partially because it _was_ a crime scene, and partially because it kept the apartment secure for the Mizuno's (hopeful) return. They were not, however, the first pair of women to enter said apartment; a pair with a similar age gap, though older overall, entered it before they did. They didn't enter through the _door_, however.

A rippling arc of energy manifested in the center of the Mizuno's kitchen, sheering the table in half, then disintegrating most of its mass as the table collapsed inward onto the arc, which was rapidly shaping itself into a circle. Cycling through various shades of blue and white, the circle stabilized as a geometrically perfect shape, then expanded until it was roughly seven feet across, turning utterly opaque.

Two western woman, one middle-aged and dressed in a miko's outfit, the other young and wearing an ill-fitting Victorian-era frock, stepped into the empty apartment.

"Japanese," The younger immediately said, as her keen eyes swept across the bindings of a handful of books that had been left in the kitchen, "I'll look for a phone book."

"Please do," The elder said, carefully turning to face the gate they had stepped through, one hand glowing with power as she dismissed it with the other.

The portal quickly shrank down to the size of a pinhead, then vanished altogether; the woman watching did not relax until several seconds after it had fully disappeared, only then allowing the spell held in her hand to fade.

"We're in Tokyo" The younger woman called from the apartment's living room, "And there's both signs of a cat living here, and violence."

"Of _course_ there are signs of violence," The older woman said with a sigh.

((()))

"I'm glad you finally found the time to speak with me, Admiral," Natsuna said cordially, greeting the older man with a handshake rather than a bow.

"Things have raised your meeting request to a considerably higher priority," Admiral Burkhalter replied grimly as he shook the (attractive) younger woman's hand, "As it was, the matter you're investigating had already landed me under a mess of time-wasting demands for reports from my political superiors back across the pond."

The two were meeting in Rear Admiral Burkhalter's office at the United States Fleet Activities base in Yokosuka, Japan. The base was the administrative center for both the US Naval Forces Japan, and the US Seventh Fleet, making it the command point for better than sixty American naval vessels, including one of the three super carriers that the US Navy kept stationed in the far east as a matter of strategic doctrine. The USS _Independence,_ the last _Forrestal_-class Aircraft Carrier the Americans were keeping in service, was visible through the large windows of the Admiral's somewhat luxurious office, eighty thousand tons of war machine ready for battle, minus the refueling and re-provisioning it was undergoing.

"I assume," Natsuna said, as the admiral seated himself and gestured for her to do the same, "That a similar attack to that carried out on the Hikawa shrine has taken place?"

"Indeed," The somewhat grizzled admiral said with a grim nod, "The forward observation and intelligence base in Alert, Nunavut, was hit last night, and a detonation almost _identical_ to that which you have been investigating occurred."

"I see," Natsuna said, her own fair countenance taking a grim cast, "Would reports of the incident happen to include the presence of an unusually large and intelligent cat?"

For an instant, surprise flickered across Burkhalter's face, before long-ingrained military displine buried it utterly.

"How did you know about that?" He asked calmly.

"Jaeger, the cat," Natsuna explained, "Was abducted by hostile forces some days ago."

"You say 'abducted,'" Burkhalter noted, "Rather than 'stolen.' Why?"

Natsuna stared at the older man thoughtfully for a few seconds before responding.

"I'm not sure how detailed the reports of Jaeger's behavior from Alert may have been," She eventually said, "So in the interests of you not thinking I am insane, would you mind if I had one of my aides bring a visual aide into your office?"

"...I suppose not," Burkhalter said after a moment's thought, "Though this does make me curious as to just what you're planning to tell me."

Natsuna just smiled.

((()))

_With all the pandemonium in Alert, getting access to one of the base's computers before leaving wasn't too difficult; doing it without being noticed was somewhat more so. Fortunately, Greater Change allowed me to do some _very_ strange shape-shifting; growing what amounted to a very, _very_ long tail, then hollowing it out so it would be internally reflective, allowed me to fake a fiber-optic manipulator extending through the half-ruined building I was being watched in. I had to check three computers before I found one that had been left logged in, but once I found that, I had access to what existed of the internet in October of 1994, as well as the base's local network, such as it was._

_Doubtless, if I tried to go crawling through the military parts of the data networks, I'd inevitably draw attention to myself; fortunately, what I needed was available on public astronomy websites, and via IRC chat and e-mail protocols. I extended a set of subsidiary tails from my peeping-eye tail, and began to type._

((()))

"He's clean," Luna said from her position on Admiral Burkhalter's desk, "I'm not familiar with the American rank insignia, but I assume from the amount he has, he's fairly important?"

"Two star admiral," Natsuna confirmed as Luna hopped back off of the desk, into the superintendent-general's lap, "Only two higher ranks in the entire navy, so yes, I'd say he's fairly important. I believe that Aircraft carrier is under his command. So Admiral," she turned her gaze back to the rather bewildered Admiral and began to gently stroke the fur along Luna's back, "If I were to tell you that Jaeger is a sentient cat, capable of communicating with humans, what would you say?"

Slowly, very slowly, the Admiral began to nod.

"I'd say that it's not quite so ridiculous a claim as I'd have once thought," Burkhalter said cautiously.

"Good," Natsuna said with a sharp nod, her tone entirely professional, "I believe I know where all of the important elements in this conflict now are, or how to draw them out. I'm going to be taking a small 'vacation' to Malaysia shortly, and I would feel ever so much safer knowing that there was a strong military presence nearby, to stabilize the region, you understand..."

((()))

"October twelfth, 1995," The younger woman said as she shared a meal at a small western-style diner in Shibuya, "Not even the same Earth, and we're in the _future_ too."

"You knew we would be getting into trouble when we decided to follow him," The elder said mildly.

"Yes," The younger replied, "But I didn't give up my right to heckle him mercilessly for the trouble he keeps getting himself into. So there."

Neither said much more of consequence before paying for their meal (entirely with coins), and leaving the cafe.

((()))

Fifteen hours after the attack on Alert, a Boeing CC-137 that the Candadian Forces used for airlift touched down at the Trenton CFB airstrip.

"I hope you're better at dealing with the brass than I am," Greenwood said flatly, turning to stare down at the cat seated beside him, "Because they're not happy about this, and a very solid argument can be made that you led them to us."

'I'll manage,' the cat scrawled on the notepad that had been attached to the back of his collar, 'It's not like there's terribly much they can do to me if I don't, either.'

"I suppose if you got away from the dark army of magical bullshit," Greenwood said gruffly, "That most cells around here won't hold you."

Jaeger was silent as the cargo hauler taxied, much as he was most of the time, and as he'd been instructed, allowed Greenwood to carry him from the plane once it came to a stop, so as to avoid preventing a navigational hazard underfoot.

"You are a _damn heavy _cat," Greenwood grumbled, "You know that?"

Jaeger responded by flicking his tail up into the other man's face; not hard enough to hurt, but enough to convey irritation.

"Yeah, yeah," Greenwood muttered, ignoring the base personnel that were looking at him oddly as he crossed the airstrip to the administration building, "You've certainly got the _disposition_ of a cat."

He completely failed to notice Aippaq following in his wake, and the private that gave him directions in the administration building's lobby didn't feel it appropriate to question a commissioned officer fresh from a combat zone about the company he kept. When he arrived at the conference room he'd been directed to (which had a pair of armed guards, oddly enough) however, those guards _did_ take notice.

"I'm sorry sir, but civilian consultants will not be allowed into this meeting without explicit permission," One of the guards, a Sergeant, said as Greenwood approached the door.

"What?" Greenwood said, glancing down at the cat in his arms for a moment before returning his attention to the Sergeant, "The _cat?_"

"He means me," Aippaq said, nearly causing Greenwood to jump out of his skin in sheer shock, "You should be more aware of your surroundings, Lieutenant."

"Didn't I tell you not to _do_ that?" Greenwood said, turning around to face the Inuit tracker, "I'm a tech weenie! I don't do tracking and interception!"

Aippaq just smiled, _almost_ smirked, at the CF officer, before turning to nod at the Sergeant.

"I will wait out here," Aippaq said calmly, "My concern is with the spirit-cat, not what lays within."

"Thank you sir," The sergeant said, nodding respectfully to the Inuit, before ushering Greenwood and the cat (who was chittering softly in in amusement), into the conference room.

Within, was a conference table surrounded by more brass than Greenwood had ever seen in his life, _and_ Prime Minister Jean Chretien .

"Lieutenant Greenwood," Admiral John de Chastelain, Chief of of Defense Staff and ranking commissioned officer of the Canadian Forces, greeted as the younger man entered the room.

"Sir!" Greenwood replied immediately, stopping so abruptly he almost lost his balance, snapping a sharp salute, and dropping into a near-perfect attention stance, unintentionally dropping the cat he was carrying as he did so.

Jaeger, as befitted a cat, landed on his feet, before hopping up onto the conference table, and seating himself in the most imperious posture he could manage, tail wrapped around his feet.

"Lieutenant," Chastelain continued, glancing back and forth between the enormous cat, and his frazzled subordinate, "You're here because Major Oak said you knew more than anyone else on the ground, just what happened up at CFB Alert. The cat is here, because it's supposedly involved. So tell us son, what happened?"

Greenwood told them.

((()))

_Things moved quickly after the visit with the Canadian leadership; they'd already had word from their American counterparts about the attack on Japan, and when it became clear that I was both a target and desiring to leave their country, they were quite happy to provide me an escort out. I asked for another shot at internet access, some travel funds, and to be sent to Vancouver; I'd be moving pretty far outside of my intended contact's operational area, but commercial air travel was always a viable backup option._

_I'd _much_ rather keep under the radar though. Of the Dark Generals, Jadeite was fire-aligned, and Kunzite was water/ice aligned, and both are dead. With the remaining two generals being air and earth aligned, I'd take travel by sea as the least likely, especially if Nephrite _is_ actually dead. The other generals didn't disintegrate though, and even if the curse is still blocking much of my practical, applied knowledge of what magic can do, I know there's quite a bit of difference between turning into a rock, or turning into ash, and that avoiding their primary areas of elemental influence is still a good idea._

_Even if I don't know the _details_ of what they could do to me within those spheres of influence, or if they're _capable_ of accessing them instead of the Dark Kingdom-provided access to Darkness Magic._

((()))

"Not quite what I was expecting," The vicar rumbled as he looked Saeko, dressed for a vacation in the tropics, up and down, "While I'm sure you are a very attractive woman, right now I'm finding your lack of horns, fangs, or claws to make you dreadfully plain."

"That does still indirectly suggest that Youma have genders that go beyond the purely superficial," Saeko said as she jotted a note down on her clipboard before looking up at the transformed former-human, "Considering that the only other Youma we've seen aside from you were female, this may suggest strange things about gender roles within their society."

"I'm getting vague hints of memories," The vicar said, carefully sitting down on the bed in his small assigned quarters within the TMPD HQ, wary of accidentally damaging it, "But most of it relates to fighting techniques at this point."

"What sort of fighting techniques?" Saeko asked, raising an eyebrow at the winged male.

"I haven't been a martial artist or a soldier in this life," The vicar said, a hint of humor in his gravelly voice, "So I couldn't tell you much with what little I have. I _can_ tell you though, that some of them involve flying. Which I _would_ like to try once I can get out of here."

"I wouldn't mind seeing it, myself," Saeko said with a nod, "Any luck with the shape-shifting?"

The vicar shook his head.

"Don't worry," Saeko said gently, reaching up (_way_ up) to rest a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder, "Every Youma we've seen so far has been capable of it, so you _should_ be able to take a human form eventually. With luck, we'll take one alive and figure it out for ourselves at some point."

The vicar nodded, his eyes conveying quiet gratitude to the woman for a long moment, before their continued testing of his new abilities and physique resumed.

((()))

"Any luck?" The younger woman asked as the elder came out of a small stand of trees that masked part of the stream flowing through the park they were in.

"No," The elder said with a grimace, "The water was neither still enough, nor 'natural' enough, for me to scry effectively with; all I received were jumbled images. We'll have to leave the city for me to find something suitable."

"I don't like it," The younger said with a sigh, "But I kind of expected it. Should we leave today, or wait until after we've slept?"

"Today," The elder said firmly, "If we fly across the bay, it'll only take a few hours, and I'm sick of dealing with gropers on the trains anyways."

Neither of them noticed a short young woman with an arm in a cast listening, but carefully not _watching_ them.

((()))

"Mizuno-san," Ryo called hesitantly as he knocked on the door to Ami's temporary room, "May I come in?"

"Yes, Ryo-san," Ami called back through the door, "Please come in."

The young junior-higher entered to find Ami laying on her (unsurprisingly) rapidly reading through a magical text on what had been dubbed the 'Mercury Computer,' though she did pause to smile shyly up at him once he had entered.

"Studying again?" Ryo asked with a gentle smile, one which deepened slightly at Ami's blush.

"Always," She said quietly, "Especially when it can save lives."

"I can't see far enough into the future to say for sure," Ryo said somewhat hesitantly, "But someone who works as hard as you will definitely be able to be a doctor if she wants to."

Ami's shy smile brightened into something gently radiant, and it took her some time to articulate a coherent response to the boy's words.

"Thank you," She finally managed to whisper out, unaccustomed to praise from a member of the opposite gender since her father had left.

"You're more than welcome," Ryo said kindly, then with supernaturally-augmented social aptitude that many other boys in his position would have envied, he changed topics; "So, I was wondering if the Mercury Computer has anything in it on Psychics, I was hoping that it might be able to help me develop my abilities further..."

The conversation continued, firmly shifted into the realm of academics, an area that Ami felt eminently comfortable within.

((()))

_Getting to Vancouver was easy; unfortunately, while my intended contact responded to my request, the sheer distance and time involved made things unfeasible; instead, I asked for a pickup in Hawaii, and was forced to risk a flight from Vancouver on through. At that point, I was _intensely_ grateful that Lieutenant Greenwood had been sent as an overt escort (I was fairly certain there were covert escorts involved as well), and Aippaq was following as well. If I'd not had a uniformed officer on hand to be slightly assertive for me, I would have been forced to follow the usual pet protocols for travel, and that would have made what I needed to do altogether impossible._

_And I was _not_ putting up with riding in a pet-carrier in the cargo hold._

((()))

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," Natsuna declared as she entered the meeting room where she'd had the jewel-bearers gathered, "Events are coming to a head, and that means that, amongst other things, it's time that I fill you in on the remaining details of what you being jewel-bearers means, at least to the best of our knowledge. To that end, I'm going to introduce you to Peter Gabriel, the Vicar of an Anglican church here in Tokyo, the first jewel-bearer that we found and retrieved."

"Why haven't we been introduced before?" A teen who preferred to be known as 'crane machine Joe' asked.

"Because I'm rather frightening to look at," A deep voice rumbled into the room, preceding the large orange form of the Vicar by only a second or two.

Half the people in the room froze; Natsuna and her subordinates had all seen the vicar before, and most of the others looked torn between panic and disbelief.

"Hello," The large, _orange_ 'man' with wings rumbled, "I am Vicar Gabriel, and it's nice to meet you all."

"I'm P-p-pleased to meet you?" Ryo's mother managed to half-state, half-ask.

"And I you," The vicar rumbled, smiling gently as he moved over to the woman, who began to tremble, and crouched to take her hand and kiss it.

"We've had Vicar Gabriel here under observation for a full week now," Natsuna continued, drawing (most) people's attention back to her as Gabriel exchanged a few quiet, reassuring words with Mrs Urawa, "And aside from some slowly-returning memories of his prior life and slight increase in aggressive urges, which he has displayed full control of, the physical transformation, there have been no major side-effects to the transformation itself."

Gabriel stood and retreated to stand directly behind Natsuna, unintentionally looming over her as she waited to ensure she had everyone's attention.

"Perhaps most importantly for your consideration," She continued, "The process of transformation was extensively painful, though Vicar Gabriel undertook it while conscious, whereas we are quite willing to bring a specialist in to place you all under general anesthesia during the process. We are certain it will be at least partially effective, but once your physiology begins to change, it may wear off before the transformation completes itself, as we have only had a limited time to study the nature of Youma physiology."

"And that seems more like magic than biology," The Vicar contributed.

"Indeed," Natsuna said with a nod, "The reason I bring this up now is rather simple; I've received word from our best field operative concerning affairs such as these, who goes by 'Jaeger,' and he's requested a meeting with all of the jewel-shards as soon as possible, in a specific location which will remain classified at this time. His message implied that he may have a means of reuniting the jewels, which is the single most essential element in this conflict, if Luna and Artemis are correct, possessing the reconstituted jewels will _end_ the conflict."

Natsuna paused for a minute to meet each of the jewel-bearer's eyes in turn, attempting to impress the gravity of the situation on them.

"I am a police officer; I will not attempt to force your choice in this, but I _will_ tell you that without the help of each of you, we may lose this war."

((()))

"I still don't get why your 'contact' wants to meet in such a public place," Greenwood muttered, his voice low enough that none but Jaeger and Aippaq could hear him.

Aippaq was too far into culture shock from what he was seeing on a Hawaiian beach to respond, but Jaeger reached up and gently patted the cheek of the human that was carrying him with one paw.

"No need to be condescending," Greenwood paused a moment before continuing, "But then, I suppose you _are_ a cat."

Jaeger purred, his chest rumbling with good humor, before his head came around sharply, directing his (and Greenwood's) attention towards a young(ish) blonde woman in an a rather scandalous bikini. The woman herself noticed Jaeger as soon as Greenwood turned in her direction, and began sauntering towards them, further discombobulating Aippaq.

"That is the biggest damn cat I've ever seen," She declared as she approached, striking a pose and extending her hands, "Can I hold him."

Greenwood rather abruptly found that there was no longer a cat in his hands.

((()))

_I am what many people would consider a 'prude' as far as body modesty goes. Between growing up largely in the muslim world, where many women wore Abayas, and my own Christian worldview, I have developed a mentality where I find the rare _modest_ woman to be far more visually attractive. I'm still a red-blooded male, and it took discipline while I was human to keep my eyes off those who _weren't_ so modestly dressed. The saturation of sexual imagery in western society was a lot harder to deal with, but I've essentially developed a reflex for not gawking at women in real life, even if I still struggle with not-real imagery._

_When Eda (and that _had_ to be here, though why she was here... oh) came sauntering up wearing a string bikini and an attitude, said reflex kicked in, and I looked away. It felt kind of odd, because I didn't have any _hormonal_ reaction to her, but when she asked to hold me, I had a small freakout. Maybe I've watched too many crappy harem anime, but I couldn't see being in intimate physical contact with a mostly-naked woman who wasn't aware I'm a shapeshifted human as ending with anything but bloodshed._

_And Eda is _not_ the type of woman you want trying to kill you. Fortunately, Eda hadn't come alone; a large, burly black man was moving up behind her, and judging by the shades and vest he was wearing, it was almost certainly Dutch._

_Communicating was a bit awkward, but after a few minutes we followed Eda and Dutch down to where a modest dinghy was pulled up onto the beach, and were on our way out to their ship._

((()))

"I believe I have divined the feline's intended destination, my queen," Nephrite announced with an elaborate bow.

"Excellent," Beryl replied, deigning to favor the Dark General with a small smile, "Where will our foes gather?"

"An island that is called Borneo," Nephrite said respectfully, "One of the largest on Earth since Atlantis was sunk. Due to the sheer distance from our current stronghold, if we are to move in force, I would recommend that we begin ferrying troops immediately, that those of us capable of teleporting forces in will be less fatigued when the time comes."

"Your plan is acceptable," Beryl declared imperiously, "Begin assisting Zoicite in reviving and moving Yoiuma at once; we can allow nothing to hinder our strike when it comes."

((()))

"Well," Saeko said as she looked over at Natsuna, "When you said you'd be using a 'vacation trip' as a cover story, I didn't think you'd be taking it this far."

Natsuna just smiled, though the sunglasses concealing her eyes gave the expression a mysterious air, and leaned back in her lounge chair. The young woman was doing an excellent job of projecting air of relaxed languor, but even if she had lacked the personal presence and social acuity to pull it off, her location most likely would have accomplished it for her. Her lounge chair lay on the private deck of one of the four luxury villas built into the top of a massive luxury cruise ship, a luxury vessel unlike any other sailing the Pacific.

Saeko had considerable wealth at her disposal, for someone who worked a 'conventional' day job, but even _she_ was still shocked by the sheer amount of money that had to have gone into the vessel's construction and outfitting.

"I think I've rather outdone myself this time," Natsuna said, lazily reaching over to the small table beside her lounge chair for a fruity drink with an umbrella sticking out of it, "I'm particularly proud of the escort."

Saeko glanced east, at the the American super-carrier looming over the cruise ship, then at the rest of the ships in the carrier battlegroup arrayed around it.

"How _did_ you do that?" Saeko asked, still feeling slightly surreal about what she and her daughter had been caught up in.

"There was another attack by the Dark Kingdom," Natsuna said, her tone more serious, "On a joint American/Canadian base up around the Arctic, and more than two hundred people were killed, despite there being less than two dozen hostiles involved in the attack. Most of the damage done was from a detonation much like the one that destroyed the Hikawa shrine."

Saeko gave no response to that; she had no response to give, and instead turned her attention to the 'private' pool in front of her, where her Ami and her friends were playing water polo. Much like Saeko herself, Ami was wearing a very modest swimsuit, something Saeko would have insisted on if Ami hadn't chosen such herself, given that the Urawa boy was present. And while Saeko wasn't sure if Ami had realized it yet, it was quite apparent to _her_ that the boy had a crush on her daughter.

"Natsuna-san," Saeko said quietly, wanting to make _certain_ that her daughter didn't hear, in spite of the noise her friends were generating, "How likely do you think a battle is when we get to Malaysia?"

"According to Ryo," Natsuna said, her voice soft with sorrow, "It's pretty much certain. My own instincts say this won't end with anything less than the maximum level of possible violence on the part of our foes. They're too committed to this to do anything else."

"According to Luna," Saeko said with uncharacteristic hesitance, "The last time the Dark Kingdom went to war, they scoured eight planets of life, and utterly devastated Earth as well."

"I know," Natsuna replied, "We'll just have to hope they're not up to that level of destruction a second time around."

((()))

"That is a big #$*(ing cat," Revy, a buxom young woman wearing cutoff shorts and a belly shirt with a pair of pistols holstered under arms, drawled as the _Black Lagoon's_ launch rejoined the ship, "We carrying cargo for some damn pet collector?"

"Actually-" Greenwood began, but was cut off by Jaeger jumping down out of his arms onto the Black Lagoon's deck, then shifting, warping, and twisting up into the shape of a full-grown man, complete with sandals, trunks, and a beard, but no shirt.

Three people on the _Lagoon_'_s_ deck responded instinctively, training a small variety of firearms on the shapeshifter who'd just revealed himself in their midst, who for his part, seemed wholly occupied with inspecting his new appendages. Also, trying to talk and failing, nothing more than hisses and short barking sounds emerging from his throat. Finally, grunting in frustration, then smiling at having managed a grunt, the shape-shifter reached up towards the back of his neck (where the notepad he'd been given by the Canadians was still attached to his collar), and was promptly shot by Revy.

Aippaq started and drew a bone knife from his belt; one of Revy's pair of Beretta's shifted over to cover him, while Jaeger just stared down at the hole in the left side of his chest and scowled, before he finished retrieving the notepad and attached writing implement from his collar, and quickly jotted a message out.

'I'm sorry, but it's been so long since I've been human that I don't know how to form the vocal cords properly anymore. Please don't shoot me again, it's going to take hours to grow that back,' he wrote, before holding it up for everyone to see.

Revy stared.

Dutch stared.

Greenwood stared.

Ada stared and twitched.

Aippaq relaxed, and slowly returned his knife to its sheathe.

"Oy," A blonde man called as he poked his head out from one of the hatches, "We can't afford this kind of noise so close to American waters, what's..."

He stared at the wound, directly over Jaeger's heart, leaking blood down his chest.

'Don't worry,' Jaeger wrote, after tearing the first note off of the top of the pad and slapping it over the hole in his chest, 'Just caught miss immodesty here by surprise.'

((()))

"That _idiot_," The younger woman growled, "Does he _never_ learn?"

"I suspect," The older woman said, irritation showing on her own face in spite of the concentration necessary to maintain the scrying spell that they were watching through, "That he did that _purely_ for effect. He's changed his fundamental physical nature _again, _though I cannot yet fully discern how. He's probably either immune to damage from non-supernatural sources, or wants people to think so, judging by how he's reacting."

"I'm still going to smack him next time we see him," The younger grumbled.

((()))

"...Okay," Greenwood said, deciding that _somebody_ had to break the ice, "I knew that he was a magical cat, but I didn't know that he could do _that_."

'Nobody asked,' Jaeger replied via written note, 'But we need to get to Borneo promptly, and I felt it appropriate to drive home just how outside of what any of you have experienced before this all is.'

"I shot you in the !# $ing _heart_," Revy shouted, "Why the _hell_ aren't you dead?"

'Because I'm a damn magical man,' Jaeger wrote, 'And you'd have gotten the same result if you'd shot me in the eye, the brain, or anywhere else. My organs-'

He disappeared from in front of her, and Revy abruptly twisted around, snapping off another pair of shots, the instant that she caught sight of him, standing ten feet down the deck from her. One shot took him in the shoulder, the other he leaned out of the way of, his beard rustling as it passed.

'Are purely optional,' he continued to write, 'And if you shoot me again, I'll have to start fighting _back_.'

He swept his writing hand off to his side, and a glowing band of energy leapt from it into the sea, cutting into the surface of the waves and caused a violent eruption of spray.

'If you shoot me enough, I _will_ die,' he continued, ignoring blood running down his arm and onto the paper he was writing on, 'I don't know who would win if we fought, but I can tell you for certain that the _boat_ would lose.'

"And," A Japanese man in semi-formal wear who looked rather out of place cut in from inside of one of the hatches, "I believe we have been contracted for a _transport_ job. Not an assassination."

"Eyes on the paycheck Revy," Dutch cut in, beginning to move towards the small ship's bridge, "Since Mister Cat seems talkative, he can answer questions on the way. Stop shooting him though, or I take any penalties out of your pay."

((()))

AN: Next chapter will finish the arc. There's more planned, but odds are decent I won't be posting any more here until I've finished writing the second arc.


	7. Yowl at the Moon, the Last Cat Standing

AN: Sorry for skipping a week here. I've had so many lousy memories associated with Christmas build up over the years, that at this point, I just about fall apart around this time of the year. And forget things, like to post the end of the story.

((()))

Kota Kinabalu wasn't a city that most westerners (or Japanese for that matter) had heard of, but it was the largest city in the northern reaches of Borneo, and was one of the largest industrial and commercial cities in eastern Malaysia. It also boasted a fair bit of tourism, and as such, while it was _strange_ to see a cruise liner such as that which brought Natsuna Sakurada and her entourage to the city sailing into the bay, it wasn't altogether unheard of. If the American fleet (and the handful of JSDF ships that had moved with it) hadn't remained out at sea, it _might_ have drawn more attention, but as it was, only those who went on long fishing expeditions, the Malaysian Government, and the local police were aware of the battlegroup's presence.

Some of them had developed the suspicion that the Emperor and President Clinton had both decided to go for a cruise, and they were seeing the appropriate escort in position. That when the ship docked, only a handful of Japanese of no particular note disembarked (most of them schoolgirls), and began to engage in generic tourist activities, resulted in some confusion, but allowed many to pass time in idle speculation.

It wouldn't be until nearly noon, on October 24th, that the presence of said 'tourists' would begin to be relevant to activities that were unfortunately energetic within the city.

((()))

"So, cat-man," Revy asked as she stared at the 'human' across the compartment from her, "If you can teleport and shit, what the hell do you need a boat for?"

'I'm cursed,' Jaeger wrote out, 'You ever tried to save an entire city?'

"Why the $(*$ would I try to do that?" Revy asked, glaring at Jaeger.

'I did,' Jaeger said, 'Three times, depending on how you define 'city.' The third time I did, somebody was pissed that I broke their magical toys when I did so, and cursed me for my insolence.'

"Why didn't the !#$er just kill you?" Revy said, "I've just met you, and I can already tell you're annoying as hell."

'I don't know,' Jaeger replied, 'But I strongly suspect that it's because it wanted me to suffer more than just killing me would have caused.'

"That's pretty twisted," Revy said, a predatory grin spreading across her face, "What do you intend to do to the $#(*er if you find him again?"

'Kill him,' Jaeger replied, 'He's too powerful, and too callous, to leave loose.'

"Just _kill_ him?" Revy said, disbelieving, "That's _$#*(ing_ _boring_, _how_ you gonna kill him? With the glowy slash thing, drop a bomb on him-"

She cut off and nearly drew her pistols, as Jaeger's snorted and his eyes glowed, and for a second, his presence seemed to drown the entire room out.

''He,'' Jaeger wrote, 'Was a damn _dragon_, larger than this _boat_, capable of magic powerful enough to level a city with a single _word_, and _not_ someone you take chances with. You shoot him, you stab him, you bomb him, you throw acid on him, then if you _do_ manage to kill him, you melt the body down into slag, burn it into ash, then _shoot it into the sun._ You do _not_ screw around with dragons at the height of their power.'

Revy was grinning, a crazed light in the back of her eyes.

"I've changed my mind," Revy said, "I _like_ your shit."

((()))

Nephrite had frequently found his assigned task of keeping a divinatory eye on Jaeger to be dull; aside from odd moments like the one he'd just been witness to, which revealed a great deal about Jaeger's character. The fact that the shapeshifter (Nephrite still wasn't certain if the ability was inherent to his species or magical) was of a sufficiently utilitarian mindset to be... _thorough_ was highly relevant news; as well as knowing that he apparently had experience with fighting greater magical beasts.

But, knowing that the shapeshifter would be arriving at the nearby city shortly before noon meant that he had news to deliver to his queen, and an army to begin moving. Nephrite grinned; war was upon them, and part of him relished the coming challenge, even if he would spend much of the battle tracking Jaeger until the cat lead them to the jewel-bearers.

((()))

_When we made landfall at the docks, at three minutes past noon, I was nervous. It was hard to miss the USN carrier battle group parked just far enough off the coast to be in international water, especially when they challenged us. Fortunately, when Greenwood answered the call, they elected not to give us any further trouble, though Dutch and Rock probably figured out that there's military proper involved in this situation at that point. The Japanese guy is sharper than he generally lets on, and I wonder how closely his history parallels that of his fictional mirror in the dimension I originate from._

_That's actually something of considerable relevance, considering that when I reverted to my cat form and joined Greenwood and Aippaq in making landfall, he and Revy were the only members of the Lagoon's crew who accompanied us. It wasn't easy but I managed to talk Revy into wearing something a bit less attention-getting, in exchange for smuggling her guns past port security for her; she spent a good five minutes inspecting them after I gave them back to her, to make sure I hadn't 'messed them up.'_

_If we hadn't had our little talk about offing Dragons, I somehow doubt she'd have even let me do that much._

_'Immigration' difficulties aside, once we'd made it past Kota Kinabalu's docks themselves, we were swept up into the most common feature of southeast Asian cities; huge crowds. Greenwood was of somewhat average height for a Canadian, which meant that he was tall enough to stick out in the crowd, and I selected him to use as a mount, while I tried to catch sight of any of the people we were looking for._

((()))

Ami was more than happy to spend time on a vacation with her (many!) new friends, even if she knew it wasn't 'really' a vacation. A few days traveling on a luxury cruise liner, followed by a visit to a city in the tropics, certainly felt like a vacation to _her_, even if they were in Kinabalu for a purpose much more important than simple relaxation. That they were making their way towards the Jalan Tun Razak City Center, to hopefully meet with her cat again sometime between two and three PM, was for her of both personal and 'professional' interest.

It was also interesting, from an intellectual perspective, being in both a different city, and a different culture simultaneously. Both the size and style of the structures in Kota Kinabalu were drastically different than Tokyo's glitzy hyper-modern facade, and although the language barrier largely prevented her from plumbing the depths of it, said barrier in and of itself was strong evidence of the cultural divide. Ami hoped that once the troubles with the Dark Kingdom were resolved, they'd be able to spend at _least_ a week in the city, so that she could learn about it and its people in more depth and detail.

Her thoughts were jarred from their usual course as an alarm started sounding throughout the city, and the pedestrian traffic came to a shuddering halt, the people on the streets (both local and tourist) more confused than scared by the unexpected sound. The alarms lasted for only about ten seconds though, before cutting out to be replaced with a loud, commanding voice barking out clipped instructions in Malaysian.

"Close in girls," Saeko instructed, the adult who had more or less taken 'charge' of the girls for their expedition into the city, "We could have a stampede on our hands shortly, and we'll want to keep together so we don't get trampled."

"I don't think anyone here would be too much trouble," Makoto opined as she eyed the (mostly shorter than herself) Malaysians and tourists surrounding them; given her longer legs, she tended to be slightly farther out than the others.

"Doesn't matter in a mob," Minako said assertively as she tugged Makoto in closer to Saeko and the other adults with them, "Quantity has a quantity all of its own."

"...What was that even supposed to mean?" Rei asked absently, most of her attention on the body language of the translator/tour-guide they'd hired to show them around the city.

For her part, Ami followed her mother's instructions quietly, practically molding herself to the older woman's back. Saeko herself was standing behind and between the two detectives Natsuna had sent to 'keep an eye on them,' making sure the girls closed in while the translator finished listening to the announcement.

"It seems a strange group is attacking the city from the East," A usually-cheerful man by the name of Joyo said grimly as the crowd started to move again, "It is being asked that everyone clear the streets, either returning to their homes or to a public building if their homes are more than ten minutes away on foot."

"That seemed like a long announcement for so little said," One of the escorting officers remarked casually.

"They names a number of districts where people should simply flee West while the police and army try to mobilize," Joyo said grimly, "We are in none of these districts. Come, I will guide you back to the boat."

"How far are we from Jalan Tun Razak?" The other guard said, tapping an earbud as he spoke.

"Perhaps twenty minutes on foot," Joyo said as the crowd around them began moving again in earnest, some people attempting to force their way through slower pedestrians, "If the streets clear quickly, we could be there in as few as ten."

"Then we will go to Jalan Tun," The officer said, "It is _imperative_ that we meet up with our friends there as soon as possible."

"But what about the attackers?" Joyo asked, eying the girls nervously, "Surely you would not want to risk the children when you could just sail away?"

"You are aware of the American battlegroup nearby?" The officer asked.

"Some of the guides on tour boats have mentioned it," Joyo said hesitantly, his eyes on the thinning crowd around them.

"We will be able to call them for support from helicopter gunships if necessary," The officer said bluntly, "If your government has requested it, they are most likely already on the way."

Joyo's eyes widened in shock, and it took a few moments for him to stop stuttering, but once he did, he began leading them all to the city center.

((()))

On the outskirts, blood was flowing in the streets. Youma were, compared to modern humans, nigh-tireless, immune to most small arms fire, and between their ability to drain energy and their claws, more than capable of tearing through anything less than full-up body armor. All things which none of the Malaysian civilians possessed in anything approaching meaningful numbers. The Youma moved out of the forested slopes just above the Dongongon district of the city, a small residential area directly bordering one of the outlying commercial districts, and moved from house to house, draining or killing everyone they found, whichever their instincts directed them towards.

Zoicite had focused on quality over quantity, and as a result, most of the Youma hadn't had their paranatural equivalent of 'higher brain function' restored, though as they gorged on the energy of defenseless Malaysians, that began to change. Not that the change was of much help to the Malaysians.

((()))

_Fortunately, we were able to make contact in spite of the alarms, and Revy managed to avoid killing anyone in spite of several jostlings from the crowd as a half-panic swept through the tourists and denizens of Kota Kinabalu. I hadn't expected contact to be made with Saeko, the Senshi, and just three adult men; my messages to Natsuna and Saeko weren't exactly long on detail, but I'm _pretty_ sure I was clear enough that I was not certain about having lost pursuit._

_Ami's reaction when she caught sight of me was... _awkward.

((()))

"Jaeger!" Ami burst out, somehow catching sight of the cat riding on a caucasian man's shoulder before any of the other girls did, and immediately breaking away from the group.

A flair for drama, a conceptualization about how heartfelt reunions were supposed to occur, a piece of pathos that was a lively part of Usagi, Minako, and Rei (though certainly not absent from others), told them that Jaeger and Ami should have both broken apart from their respective groups, and met dramatically in the middle while the others tried to catch up. They were somewhat disappointed to discover that, despite the mostly thinned out crowd, Makoto and one of their two escorts were both too wearing of letting the slender Mizuno girl run off alone, and their longer legs and higher level of overall fitness allowed them to keep pace with her easily.

Jaeger also failed to fulfill his assigned role of breaking off from his group, instead carefully dismounting from his current 'ride' when Ami neared the group, then rearing up on his hind legs to plant his forepaws against Ami's belly as she reached him, helping her stop without crashing into the man who'd been carrying him.

"Jaeger!" Ami shouted, clumsily dropping down to seize the large cat and hug him, "Don't you go disappearing and make me worry like that!"

Jaeger purred deeply, his chest resonating deeply enough that the small girl could feel it in her bones, thrumming through her arms and ribcage.

"Hey kid," Revy's brash voice called out, interrupting the 'moment,' "You know you're hugging a #$*(ing shapeshifter man, not a cat, right?"

"Yes," Ami said sharply, looking up with more steel in her gaze than any of her friends had seen in her before, "But he's _also_ my first friend, and he has _never_ lied to me."

Then she stood, holding the cat tightly to her chest as she glared up at the chinese-american woman who wasn't exactly trying to hide that she was armed any longer.

"He's fully literate, he's fought to protect me, and he's trustworthy," Ami declared emphatically, "Jaeger is the _best cat ever_. Even if he's not really a cat."

"Feisty little bitch, aren't you?" Revy said, not sure if she should be impressed or pissed.

"I take it you are the contact we are here to meet?" Rock said, stepping forward and carefully laying a hand on Revy's shoulder.

"That'd be us," Saeko said as the rest of the group closed to conversational range, "We need to get down to the docks, the attack coming out of the East is probably here for Jaeger, us, or both."

"You're going to need more than a pair of suits to deal with something big enough to take on a whole city," Revy said as she eyed the two plainclothes officers escorting the girls, "And what's with all the brats?"

"Operational cover," One of the escorts said, "Now if we could get back to the ship as soon as possible, hopefully we can end this conflict with a minimum of bloodshed."

None of those present were sufficiently separated from the potential dangers of the situation to disagree.

((()))

_I had _no_ idea that Natsuna had either this kind of money, or this kind of pull. She brought an entire _cruise liner_ to Malaysia. I don't know if that's personal wealth, or personal influence speaking, but either way, I'm glad she decided to use the pull. Once we boarded said cruise liner, it also very quickly became apparent that she had brought what amounted to a small private army along with as well; what looked like a couple hundred of Tokyo's riot police, roughly as many of the Japanese SWAT equivalent, and and indiscriminate mess of beat cops who'd been issued sidearms more powerful than the pissant little revolvers they usually carried._

_Revy and Rock were so stiff around the huge mass of police, even if they weren't in uniform, that it was almost hilarious. I was, unfortunately, painfully aware that her being so tense could result in a bloodbath, but both her and Rock were aware that not even someone as crazy-fast as her could hope to cut her way through all the police on that ship. Natsuna, being the social master that she is, figured out the dynamic within seconds of catching sight of our group, and dealt with it adroitly._

((()))

"Ah," Natsuna said, a just-slightly-predatory smile edging across her face, "Jaeger, so good to see you again. I assume these are your latest conveyors?"

Jaeger rolled his eyes, before twisting around slightly in Ami's grip to present the notepad at the back of his neck, and wrote out a response.

'Independent Contractors, I picked them because they were the best balance between heavily-armed and discreet I could find. I see you went for neither in your travel options.'

"Discretion," Natsuna said, her smile widening as she gestured idly to the top deck of the cruise ship around them, "Is sometimes a tool best discarded when it is what your foe's entire survival depends upon. I decided concentration of force was a better plan than trying to remain unnoticed when my opposition has _magic_."

'I hope it's enough,' Jaeger wrote out, 'There's one, probably two more Dark Generals out there, probably leading the attack on the city, and we haven't even seen Beryl yet.'

"Enough?" Natsuna said, raising an eyebrow, clearly amused, "This is just what _I_ brought, the Americans brought an entire _fleet_ and aircraft carrier."

Revy tensed; Rock gawked, Jaeger twitched.

'There is no overkill,' Jaeger wrote out, 'Only 'open fire' and 'reload.''

((()))

"Where the _hell_ is our military?" The mayor of Kota Kinabalu demanded, nearly screaming into his phone.

"Mobilizing, sir," The strained voice of a junior officer came from the other end of the line, "Every Royal Army asset in East Malaysia is now on alert, and Royal Navy and Royal Airforce assets in _all_ of Malaysia are deploying as we speak."

"We need men here _now_," The mayor hissed, "The beasts are a quarter of the way through the city already, and the police are doing _nothing_ to slow them down!"

"Sir," The officer said, a hint of anger beginning to leak into his tone, "I can see, directly outside of my office, soldiers _sprinting_ to their armories and transports to begin deployment-"

"THEN TELL THEM TO RUN FASTER, DAMMIT!"

"IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO THAN SCREAM AT PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP YOU," The officer shouted back, finally snapping, "THEN SHOUT AT SOMEONE ELSE!"

The line went dead as the officer disconnected.

"#! (*$," The mayor swore, casting his mind about desperately for a way to keep his city from being torn about, before turning to stare out over the ocean.

"Someone else, eh?" He said, "Suicide to talk to the Americans, but the JSDF..."

((()))

Nephrite continued to watch as the shapeshifter was ushered through the sea-faring vessel's interior, until conveniently enough, he arrived in a room with what the Dark General immediately recognized as the six of the seven champions of the Youma clans. Who were strangely docile, considering that a known hostile was amongst them, and that six rainbow jewels were sticking out of their chests. For a long moment, Nephrite considered acting on the information himself, but after long, _long_ thought, he chose instead to go to his queen with the information, confident that she would order swift action.

He was right.

((()))

Revy was starting to get a bit freaked out by just what she had walked into, though she would _never_ admit it. It hadn't been too hard to figure out that Greenwood was military, though guessing based on how not-stiff he was, she'd figured he was either done with his service stint, or in some sort of reserve service. One Canuck soldier she'd been more than able to handle; the Eskimo he'd brought with him was probably decent in a fight, but he'd completely lacked the killer instinct that would have had her label him a _serious_ threat.

The cat-man was shit-bonkers disturbing at first, but _way_ too loose to be any kind of cop or military; she'd kept an eye on him anyways though. But an entire _ship_ full of cops, and a woman Rock said was the head of the entire damn Tokyo police force, which put her in charge of _forty thousand men..._

This shit was bigger than _anything_ she'd ever been involved with, and if it weren't for her complete unwillingness to present a weak front, she'd have jumped overboard within five minutes of boarding the damn cruise ship. When they walked into a room filled with six _!# $iing_ _monsters_ though, she hit the cap of her weird-shit-o-meter, and only Rock's tight grip on her shoulder kept her from drawing and opening up right then and there.

When a _# $(ing_ pretty boy appeared in a _#$*(ing_ flash of _*! #ing_ dark light, her weird-shit-o-meter blew its top, and she drew and opened fire, _regardless_ of Rock trying to pull her back out of the large cabin by the shoulder.

((()))

Nephrite's memories of being shot via his shadow were not wholly clear, but they _were_ clear enough that when a woman started shooting at him less than a _second_ after he teleported into the room, he knew that the weapons were _not_ to be taken lightly. Not that two handguns by themselves were a major threat to him, but his (only) prior experience told him that where there was one weapon, there would soon be more.

Bullets crashed into his shield, and Nephrite deftly angled it so that it also shielded him against Jaeger's lunge, the large cat bouncing off of the barrier, heedless of the bullets whizzing past him. When the woman paused to reload her weapons, however, Senshi Jupiter stepped up to support the cat in another attack, and Nephrite was forced to fall back a step. Several of the others in the room had started to react by then, drawing weapons or recoiling away from him, but that was alright, Nephrite had expected it.

A single step further back put the Dark General within arm's reach of Boxer, one of the more potent champions; after that it only took him laying a hand on the Youma's shoulder, and they had disappeared in a flash of magical teleportation.

((()))

"I've got him," The elder woman called over the CB radio that the younger woman was holding, "He's aboard the big cruise liner at the docks, but he won't be for long."

"Why not?" The younger asked, carefully surveying the city around her from her seat atop the Tun Mustapha tower.

"There's an army of monsters attacking the city out of the Southeast," The elder replied, "It looks like elite mooks, and they're attacking the civilians."

"I'll go looking for him there then," The younger said, moving towards the tower's edge, "Will you be coming in?"

"Too early," The elder said, "I'll keep an eye out for whatever is leading them, and move in only if necessary."

"Alright, I'm moving now, out," The younger said as she leapt off of the tower, stowing the CB in an oddly-shaped backpack as she did so, "Time to go get some bastard's attention."

((()))

"We have just lost the strategic initiative," Natsuna barked, quelling the chaos that had nearly broken out, "Our enemy has located us, most likely by scrying Jaeger, and has shown the ability to strike and fade with near-impunity. We know they already have assets locked down in the city however, and we need to force them to engage here if at _all_ possible. Luna, Artemis, Jaeger, or anybody else, any advice on how to do that?"

Jaeger jumped forward to stand directly in front of Natsuna, before his shape rippled, expanded, and formed into a fully-grown male human, seizing the attention of everyone in the large cabin, especially the Mizunos'.

'Attack the leaders' egos,' Jaeger wrote out, holding his notepad directly in front of Natsuna as he did so, 'Beryl, their queen, is a raging egomaniac, and the surviving Dark Generals aren't much better.'

"I agree," Luna and Artemis said simultaneously, before Luna continued by herself, "Earth Kingdom nobility always had overly-large egos, and it only became more intense after Metallia became involved from what I remember of the assault on the Moon."

"Anybody have anything to add or detract from that?" Natsuna asked, speaking so quickly she nearly cut the Mau off, and reaching out to one of her aides for a radio after just five seconds in which no-one else responded, "All TMPD personnel," she declared through the device, "We're going on full alert and deploying into the city at once. Bring heavy weapons, and don't stop for _anything_, we have entered a Ragnarok scenario."

She lowered the radio, and swept her gaze across the cabin's occupants, some of them only just realizing how captive her force of personality held them.

"Senshi, jewel-bearers," She declared, "None of you are military, none of you are police officers, and I hold no legal authority over you, but if you want to help me save the world, _now_ is the time."

She held their gazes for a long collective moment, before turning and heading towards the large cabin's exit.

"Come with me if you want the world to live," She called back over her shoulder, "And Jaeger, we brought a toy for you."

((()))

"You have brought me only _one_ jewel," Beryl said, her gaze harsh with disapproval as she looked back and forth between the bound orange-skinned Youma, and one of her two surviving generals, "How do you justify this failure?"

"The Senshi have subverted the champions somehow, my queen," Nephrite said crisply, his voice full of professional respect, "And both all of the Inner Senshi, as well as six of the champions and the shape-shifter Jaeger, were present in the same chamber. Considering the fates that Jadeite and Nephrite suffered, I decided it would be wiser to deny them one of the jewels, and thus the Ginzuisho, and allow Kunzite to move in force to take possession of the rest of them."

For a long, tense moment, Boxer's thrashing attempts to break from his bonds were the only sounds within the clearing Beryl had appropriated for the course of their assault on the city.

"I will accept this _for now_," Beryl declared, her gaze harsh and forgiving as it bored into the back of Nephrite's bowed head, "But if Kunzite's assault on the city should fail to bring me the jewels, _you_ will share his punishment for failure."

"I understand, my queen," Nephrite declared, "With your leave then, I will join him in pressing his assault."

((()))

The streets of southeastern Kota Kinabalu were filled with screams as the city government's initial attempts to protect its inhabitants turned against it, the families which had returned to their homes finding themselves effectively helpless in front of the onslaught of monsters swarming through the city. The largest mass of Youma was moving up a primary road known as Jalan Kolam, practically swallowing those still attempting to return to their homes, and rapidly running down those who abandoned their cars to flee on foot.

A young woman rocketed through the air and landed a hardened fist directly in the chest of one of the Youma, shattering it and causing the Youma to dissolve into dust. It was but one in a tide of bodies however, and those alongside and behind it immediately swarmed in on her, burying her athletic form in a wave of bestial pseudo-feminine bodies.

A feral roar tore across the broad six-lane road, rattling the bones of everyone close enough to hear it, and the Youma's advance stalled as a massive, lupine head tore its way free of the pack of bodies. With a sound like a band saw tearing through soft pine, a dozen Youma were torn to dust and ash, and the woman's transformed body fully emerged into view of the surviving onlookers, both human and Youma.

Over ten feet tall, weighing half a ton, covered in silky, almost glowing white fur, lean, powerful muscles rippling up and down its legs, abdomen, chest, and arms, a legend stepped onto the urban battlefield. One of the larger Youma near it sensed the challenge of a larger predator, and lunged forward, seeking to squash the the rival before it could begin to assert itself.

The white werewolf seized the Youma by its arms, tore them off, then rammed one through its chest, dusting the creature.

"Come and FIGHT ME!" The Werewolf roared, its massive chest and fanged maw giving it a deep, snarling voice, "All you bitches try someone who can _fight back!_"

The more instinctive parts of the Youma's minds, for most of them the only part that was even _active_, warned them that they had encountered something far, far, greater than they could hope to defeat, and given the choice, most of them would have run. The thrall that held them to the Dark Kingdom's will, however, gave them no such option, and instead, they rushed as one to the attack.

The advance down the Jalan highway stalled.

((()))

A hastily-procured semi truck hauled a tarp-covered cargo away from the cruise-liner's flank, and began driving into the city, heading South towards the hostile force. Within the cab, Rock drove, Revy sat in the passenger's seat, with a radio linking them to Jaeger in between. Trailing behind the heavy rig, were an assortment of armored, unmarked police vans and cars, filled to the brim with heavily armed TMPD officers. Amongst the train of vehicles that had been offloaded from the liner's considerable cargo space, a single armored limousine held Natsuna, the Senshi, and the more human-sized jewel-bearers.

If the police and customs officers intended to serve has port security had been on hand, they would never have allowed the convoy out, but the mayor had already ordered them to join the mass of police and small military force within the city already moving to oppose the Youma. They entered the city unmolested, but they weren't the first non-civilian force to enter the city.

((()))

While most people living in modern nations were at least peripherally aware of the existence of American 'Super-carriers,' and that said ships were functionally the kings of naval warfare, something that fewer people around the world, including American citizens, were aware of was the existence of Amphibious Assault Ships. Easily mistakable for an aircraft carrier, especially when not seen alongside a 'proper' full-up aircraft carrier within an American fleet, they were in fact quite a bit smaller, and their role was substantially different.

As an example, the _USS Kearsage,_ one of the new _Wasp_-class AAS, fully loaded with the lion's share of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, weighed in at just over 41,000 tons. That weight included 6 Harrier attack aircraft, 4 SuperCobra attack helicopters, 12 Sea Knight transport helicopters, 4 Sea Stallion combat transports, a handful of Hueys, and three heavy hovercraft that served as assault amphibious assault transports, primarily ferrying vehicles to shore. The _ground_ vehicles that the _Kearsage_ carried for the Marine Expeditionary Unit included 5 full-up M1A1 Abrams battletanks, 25 Amphibious Assault Vehicles, 8 155mm howitzers, and almost 80 Humvee's, trucks, and other assorted support vehicles.

The Malaysian Royal Army had more manpower within relevant strategic distance; even with the presence of the _Forrestal_ alongside the _Kearsage_ they arguably had more air power within relevant strategic distance. What the Malaysian military did _not_ have was personnel with significant combat experience, or operational doctrine for rapid-response to major threats developed during the Cold War, and tested during operation Desert Storm or the incident in Mogadishu. Perhaps more importantly, the admiral commanding the American task force had been ordered (even if he didn't fully believe it) to _expect_ 'paranatural attacks' on the city.

The American battlegroup was just over fifteen miles off the shore of Kota Kinabalu; the nearest major Royal Malaysian Army base was more than four hundred miles Southwest, at the opposite end of Malaysian territory in Borneo. The American fleet received news of the attack on the city before the Royal Malaysian Army did, though only by a few minutes; it would be four hours by the time a full-scale response force could arrive from the First Division.

When the Mayor of Kota Kinabalu contacted the Americans to ask for support, alert aircraft were already airborne, and advancing towards the city in less than two minutes; the first wave of helicopters with Marines on board were launched within five (around the same time the first surface transport launched), and SuperCobras (armed with Gatling guns, rockets, and missiles) launched to support them five minutes after that.

By the time the Mayor ended his 'call,' American aircraft were already over the city.

((()))

"I am Sakurada Natsuna," The superintendent-general of the TMPD announced via megaphone, standing up through the sunroof of her limo, "And I challenge the so-called 'queen' of the Dark Kingdom to cast aside her craven cowardice, to come out and _face_ me, rather than cower in the shadows like the pathetic wretch she has thus-far proven herself to be!"

Her challenge was punctuated by a rocket launched by one of the American helicopters, the first of many, detonating further across the city.

((()))

While substantial support from the Royal Malaysian Army was hours away, there _were_ lesser elements already present within the city; they simply weren't numerous enough to function as more than hard points slowing the assault, rather than pressing it back. Worse, once they ran out of their small stock of grenades, their assault rifles were only effective at point blank range, where the soldiers could reliably target the throat, eyes, or joints of the Youma; center of mass shots did nothing. A handful of combat shotguns proved more effective, but by and large the Malaysians were decidedly on the back foot, strategically.

When the American Marines began landing, they sought secure landing zones near the forefront of the conflict, most such areas defined by the small pockets of resistance that the Malaysian forces had created. Within three minutes of landing, the marines had not only better than tripled the manpower at each hardpoint, they'd also provided the Malaysians with armor-piercing ammunition, which _did _pack enough penetrative force to work on Youma.

Zoicite, directing the battle from within the forest, watching through the eyes of his thralls, immediately noticed the change, and had no interest in having his primary combat assets slaughtered. He ordered a retreat.

((()))

"You're not getting away from me!" The werewolf snarled, loping swiftly after the abruptly-retreating Youma, tearing into their backs as she ran them down.

"Shit," The lieutenant in command of the marine squad that had been dropped in behind her said, "There's no way in hell we're going to keep up with her on foot. SLOW DOWN YOU CRAZY BITCH, YOU'LL GET CUT OFF!"

"Sir," The company's senior sergeant said as he jogged forward with the rest of the unit, "I don't think she _cares_."

((()))

With Nephrite otherwise occupied, Beryl had chosen to keep a divinatory eye upon the battlefield herself. She was _perhaps_ less skilled than the general of the skies in the art, but if so, the discrepancy between Nephrite's skill in his specialty, and the former court-sorceress' proficiency in the one amongst many of her skills was negligible. Beryl customarily delegated the task to Nephrite for two simple reasons; first, if he was occupied, it kept him from spying upon _her_, and second, _she_ was the queen, and _he_ was her subject.

What she found occurring throughout the city did _not_ please her. Up until the arrival of the new army with the strange, magic-less flying machines, her forces had been utterly-unstoppable, only a few pathetic enclaves of soldiers even managing to slow them. Now her forces were in full retreat, a full tithe of the Youma cut down before Zoicite had managed to recall the vanguard. The wolf-creature that had stood to bar the most prominent passage into the city's heart had been nothing but an irritant when it stood alone, but _now_...

Strange mechanical monstrosities held aloft by an insane mechanism of spinning blades were sweeping across the battlefront, launching explosives and arcs of fire into the retreating horde of Youma, cutting down her thralls by the dozen.

"Zoicite!" Beryl barked, opening a channel through which to communicate with him, "Explain this farce of a battle you are conducting!"

"Of course my Queen," Zoicite responded promptly, "Our foes have finally revealed their reserves, and I shall shortly be deplooying my prepared counter."

"You expected this?" Beryl demanded, not bothering to keep the disbelief from her voice.

"_Please_, my Queen," Zoicite replied, his voice taking on the air of a long-suffering underling, "I _am_ a General. I did not expect this specific counter, but this 'Jaeger' has consistently shown himself to have a trump up his furry little sleeve, and as such, I expected _some_ form of tactical gambit on his part."

"And how will you deal with it?" Beryl demanded.

"If my Queen wishes to know," Zoicite declared grandly, "All she need do is recall that I have yet to deploy any airborne Youma, and turn her eyes to the sections of the city we have already seized control of."

((()))

Lynette _had_ been a full time general practitioner five years back, but her 'career' since then had become _complicated_. Complicated to a degree that resulted in her sitting quietly within a small glade, staring into a natural pool of water, watching the battle in Kota Kinabalu that was supernaturally 'reflected' on its surface. Scrying, and other forms of Divinatory magic, was something she had become very skilled in through the last year, a necessary result of the search she and Caitlyn had undertaken, and it was due to this skill that she noticed she wasn't the only one scrying the field.

It was difficult, but not altogether impossible, to notice the subtle magical presence of another's extra-normal senses being used in an area with one's own; Lynette couldn't honestly say that she was terribly surprised when she did. Despite several attempts to trace the other's supernatural eye back to its owner as it traced across the parts of the city the monsters had already swept across however, she failed to do so. Her fifth attempt, unfortunately, alerted the other to _her_ presence, and seconds later the pool began to steam, and Lynette's view of the battlefield was replaced by the visage of a haughty redhead wearing an overly-revealing dress.

"Who _dares_ to spy upon the Queen of the Dark Kingdom?" The woman demanded furiously.

Lynette stared impassively back, studying the woman's expression, apparent age, her eyes, hair, the talon-like red nails on the ends of her fingers, everything she could to gain a gauge of the woman's character. In the last five years, she had seen in many extraordinary things; in the last two, she had seen many _bizarre_ things, otherworldly in a way she'd never imagined, some of them in ways she had never _wanted_ to imagine. All of these things brought together lead her to a single tentative conclusion, that she immediately decided to test.

"My name is Lyn," She said, brow furrowed in concern, "Are you possessed?"

An instant of terrified vulnerability flickered across the other woman's face, before it was supplanted by incandescent rage. Reading the other 'woman's' intentions like a book, Lynette hurled herself away from the pool, avoiding the beam of crackling destruction that erupted from it, then cast a spell, and leapt into the trunk of a nearby tree, phasing into it without leaving a trace.

((()))

"It isn't working," Rei said, frustration clear in her voice as she stared out at the city through the limo's armored windows.

"We'll reach the line of battle in four minutes," Ami said quietly, glancing between the truck in front of them, and the city around them, worriedly, "We'll be fighting then either way."

"Don't do anything stupid," Minako said, her tone and expression uncharacteristically stern as she swept her eyes across the other girls and boy in the limo, "Stay together, _don't_ let yourself get isolated, and remember that it's always better to keep yourself alive, than kill a few more Youma. If one of us goes down, that's more than a tenth of our magical fighters, but a Youma is just one amongst thousands."

"Ryo-kun," Usagi asked, her voice betraying her nervousness as much as her fidgeting did, "Will we win?"

"I don't know," the only boy in the back of the limo said quietly, "I can't see anything past the end of the battle at all."

Usagi shivered, and most of the other girls felt a chill as well.

"We'll just have to win," Makoto said forcefully, clenching a fist as she did so, "I kicked Jadeite's ass, and I can deal with his crappy little monsters too."

((()))

Like many tourist-trap cities, Kota Kinabalu's civic architects had made efforts to 'prettify' the city, and as a consequence, many stretches of road were lined with cultivated trees. Any number of them were close enough to Caitlyn's position that Lynette had no difficulty tree-walking into her comrade's immediate vicinity.

The older woman's arrival was immediately succeeded by an entire wall of stone erupting across half the breadth of the highway, stopping Youma's retreat cold. It only stopped them for a brief moment, as at a mere twenty feet tall, it was too short to stop them from scaling it, but it still cost the Youma momentum, and in the few seconds the lead rank were stunned by their collision with the wall, _another_ emerged atop the first. The Youma began to climb, but in raising themselves above street level, on top of being held in a single area for more than a handful of seconds, they unintentionally created what is sometimes referred to as a 'killbox' by modern soldiers.

The soldiers on the ground opened fire, and the helicopter gunships began launching rockets.

((()))

Further southeast within the city, roughly two hundred Youma were moving with far more purpose than the horde at large was. While a significant fraction of the humans living in that district of the city had been killed or drained already, _most_ had successfully fled into their homes and barred the doors. Not that doors were any meaningful impediment to Youma, but 'out of sight, out of mind' generally applied to the simplistic mentalities the sustenance-starved Youma were capable of.

The ten-score Youma that Zoicite had dedicated to other causes, however, had been directly guided to smash their way into the houses and apartment blocks that people remained within, then drain them to the very verge of death. It was a mentally draining task, to directly guide so many thralls, but before long Zoicite no longer _needed_ to directly guide them, as the rapid gorging upon life energy rapidly revitalized and empowered the Youma.

Within five minutes they had regained the capacity for coherent thought; within ten, the capacity for coherent _speech_. By the time that the Malaysian and American forces that had been counterattacking reached the first of the empowered Youma, it was twice the size of its lesser brethren, and _vastly_ more dangerous.

Watching through Nephrite's divinatory focus, Zoicite smiled at what he saw.

"Not as clumsy as I would have expected," Nephrite admitted grudgingly, "But what of that wolf-creature?"

"I will send the Doom and Gloom girls to deal with it," Zoicite said, "If they cannot, we shall attend to the matter personally."

((()))

_Slotted into a prepared place of concealment, I waited. Waiting during a battle can be hard, especially for someone with a hero complex like me; I want to save everyone ever (more or less), but I'm also realistic enough to recognize that I'm not God, and I'm not a little-g 'god' of sufficient power to dominate a battlefield either._

_So, I sit and wait, while I use my Ki-sense to retain the best general-awareness of the world around me that I can. I have a radio with which I can contact the Senshi, Sakurada, or her similarly-equipped subordinates, but as none of the soldiers on the ground have been willing to pull us into their own communications loops yet, it's of limited use. My Ki-senses, however, reveal the presence of large swarms of Youma, even if details are largely lost to the distances. The numbers don't concern me; the hundred-plus signatures that are growing significantly stronger, do_. _I decided that I should contact Natsuna about that._

_And then I realized that I'm a damn _cat_, and can't use the damn radio to _send_._

((()))

Caitlyn first became aware of her new foes' presence when a lash of steel wire whipped towards her furry flank. Cait had learned the mentality of her de-facto mentor before he had been taken away however, and while she was brutally powerful on offense, she was _far_ more skilled at defending herself; primarily by _not_ being in the way of something trying to hurt her. She ducked, twisted, rolled, then clawed the wire, which was twisting to follow her in clearly-supernatural ways, apart, buying herself a moment's respite to examine her new foe.

_Foes_, she silently noted to herself, a half-dozen scantily-clad beings, more human-shaped than the others she had fought thus far, and in her esteemed opinion, doing the worst possible thing with it by dressing like cheap sluts. Something sent a tingle down her side, and she instinctively leapt forward, snarling, towards the six (winged) foes that stood in front of her, narrowly avoiding a blast of shadowy energy launched by a seventh from above.

A hurricane of steel wire leapt from the other six towards her as she leapt towards them; Caitlyn ducked, dodged, and slashed at the wire, but some of it still slashed into her thick hide, where it failed to do much more than scratch her. Apparently, they'd expected her to be torn apart, because the one Cait had charged failed to react in time to prevent the werewolf from grabbing her, and tearing her limb from limb.

Unlike any of the other Youma Cait had fought thus far, however, the other five still on the ground took to the air and _fell back_ outside of her effective engagement range, but did not flee altogether. Then, things became _complicated_.

((()))

In a clearing, stood a Queen, or at least a being that called herself a Queen. Her eyes stared into a sphere that revealed the happenings in a city not far off, but they were unfocused, unseeing. Her shoulders twitched occasionally, she swayed slightly where she stood, as though the muscular control necessary to maintain proper balance was somehow beyond her.

As though she was _distracted_. Unable to _focus._ Consumed by something else, something _different_.

((()))

"Hostiles reforming for counter-attack," warned Tango Four, gunner of the second Supercobra in the MEU's combat wing, "Looks like they've got some bigger, different monsters whipping the gribblies back into shape."

"Please describe, Tango Four," The report from command came back.

"Big bastard that looks like a Lion moving up three streets West of Jalan," Tango Four reported, "Moving into and _through_ civilian habitations we have marked as uninhabited, likely more intelligent and making use of cover. Being followed by what looks like a woman's top half stuck onto a spider's body, it's making use of unnaturally large spider webbing. Should we reposition and look for more?"

"No," Command replied, "Fall back to airspace over ground we control, and take targets of opportunity _as they are in the clear_. The Admiral is adamant that we avoid civilian casualties as much as possible."

"Yessir," Tango Four replied as Tango Three, the SuperCobra's pilot, confirmed the order, "Pulling back to friendly airspace."

((()))

Lynette had never been much of one for fighting in her life 'before' the one man Tornado that hit Chicago's criminal underworld, destroyed it, and dragged her away from what she'd known before. Fortunately, brawling was a role she had _very_ rarely been forced to take, despite associating with dangerous and driven people, largely because said dangerous and driven people engaged in it themselves, allowing her to take a support role in most conflicts.

Which wasn't to say that she was _incapable_, or that she was incapable of dealing large amounts of damage without entering a melee, something that she found much less distasteful. Unfortunately, 'Boss' wasn't around to take the lion's share of the combat load on the Jalan highway, and Cait by herself wasn't enough to occupy the enemy's full attention.

Which was why, standing atop the roof of a derelict car, trying to use spellfire to ward off an anthropomorphic bat-woman that was persistently harassing her, regular barrages of screeches powerful enough to make unprotected eardrums pop (Lynette's ears _were_ protected), and not giving her enough time to wind up for a spell powerful enough to put the creature down decisively. The Malaysian and American soldiers further up the street were trying to lend support fire, but small arms fire seemed to be ineffective, and the damn thing was moving too fast for RPG's to be brought to bear.

As the continued harassment went on, Lynette got so frustrated that she turned into a giant bear and bite the damn Youma in half.

((()))

When Revy finally closed enough to the battlefront to see what was going on from the cab of the truck she was driving, the first thing she saw was a woman turn into a giant bear and bite one of the monsters in half.

"I _like_ this city," Revy half-shouted, a manic gleam in her eyes, "Rock, we're taking our next vacation here."

"Revy," Rock said, failing to keep the tension from his voice, "I don't think that monster attacks are a regular event here."

"Well # $* this then!" Revy shouted, kicking the door beside her open, "I'm going to enjoy this shit while I still can!"

Then she jumped out of the truck and sprinted towards the melee ahead, drawing her guns as she ran.

((()))

Beryl's eyes slowly refocused, though her body trembled, and she stared into the scrying orb, turning its gaze to her Dark Generals, who in turn, were watching as the Doom and Gloom girls fought with the white were-wolf. The Queen watched the Generals watch their subjects (thralls) fight the Earth's rebellious (free) inhabitants, seeking to assert their Queen's (usurped) authority and clear the way to recover that which was stolen from her.

Her minions forced the werewolf into a retreat, the shifter dancing back down the street, constantly harried by the six flying females, forced completely onto the defensive, especially after a single attempt to lunge up high enough for a retaliatory attack failed to net it anything but more wounds as it was unable to maneuver effectively in midair. The razor-sharp wire the Doom and Gloom girls used failed to inflict anything more substantial than light slashes against the Werewolf's thick hide, even though Beryl could dimly recall seeing the selfsame weapons cut directly through full plate-mail, but the Youma seemed perfectly content to subject the wolf to the death of a thousand cuts.

The Generals turned their attention (and Beryl's by proxy) to other parts of the battlefield, where other empowered Youma were turning the retreat into a counter-attack; dozens of soldiers were dead, and they'd been forced to withdraw into the open streets, their primitive, non-magical weapons ineffective against Beryl's soldiers when they had returned to the fullness of their power. Blasts of shadowy energy were launched, magical knives were thrown, swarms of vermin under the sway of Youma engulfed the soldiers; Beryl even saw 'Jaeger's' ice-puppets, appropriated for control by one of her subordinates, turned against her foes. Several of the larger Youma were cut down by strange flame-propelled weapons from the ugly flying machines that the rebels (humans) were using, but most managed to avoid fire by using the city's squalid dwellings as cover.

When the Generals' attention turned back towards the Jalan highway, however, they discovered two disturbing facts. First, a strange twilight had begun to overtake the city, and second, a powerful spellcaster now stood behind the Werewolf, acting in support of the creature. The caster also appeared to be a _bear_.

It took less than half a minute of deliberation, and watching two more of the Doom and Gloom girls being felled, for Nephrite and Zoicite to decide that the time had come to enter the field themselves.

((()))

One of the limits of scrying, is that the field of vision it offers is substantially limited; no matter how skilled the diviner, it simply cannot offer as broad a view as one's own eyes. When Nephrite and Zoicite teleported into the Jalan highway in order to support their minions, they had not been aware of the sizable column of heavily-armed Japanese police less than half a kilometer away. It did not, however, take long for them to _learn_ of their presence, courtesy of a pair of Beretta 9mm's in the hands of the only half-Chinese, half-American in the convoy.

((()))

_The truck has stopped, and I sense conflict beyond. More, both Dark Generals have arrived; it is time for battle._

((()))

/edison-dervishi-1/warriors-return

((()))

The steel cables binding the tarp to the semi's bed snapped. Servos whirred, the rhythmic clanking of extraordinarily large machinery ratcheting against itself echoed out from beneath the tarp, and an immense form unfolded beneath, rising up to stand over the truck which had carried it, and shedding the tarp in the process. Set beneath an armored brow, brilliantly glowing azure eyes shone forth as the construct's head was revealed, standing directly over an immense, steel-fanged maw.

_Thump_. _Thump_.

The gigantic feline's forelegs descended to the surface of the street to either side of the truck bed, and as the tarp completed its fall, revealing the construct's sleek midnight-blue steel armored shoulders and spine.

((()))

((()))

_Thump. Thump._

The rear legs descended to the pavement, and the trailer visibly rose on its suspension; the driver, in a substantial display of practical wisdom, immediately threw the truck into reverse, and it rapidly slid out from beneath the titanic feline automaton, narrowly avoiding the sinuous writhing of its tail. Its jaws cracked open, revealing a fiery glow in its 'throat,' and a deep, bassy rumble rolled out, the warning growl of a predator challenging an interloper within its territory.

Then it _leapt_, shattering the road surface with the sheer force of its mechanical muscles, pouncing on the pair of Dark Generals arrayed against the Wolf and Bear already on the battlefield.

"TANK CAT IS STRONG," A thundering voice bellowed from a powerful speaker somewhere on its superstructure, "TANK CAT WILL CRUSH ALL ENEMIES."

((()))

"EVERYBODY OUT," Natsuna roared, holding her megaphone in one hand as the other seized her sidearm and drew it, "FORM UP AND ATTACK BY SQUADS, LET THE CIRCUS HANDLE THE CLOSE-IN WORK, WE'RE HERE FOR FIRE SUPPORT."

The Senshi piled out of the Limousine, already transformed. Within, Artemis and Luna finished orchestrating a spell over Ryo, whose body swelled and warped into an armored green-and-white form fully as large as the bear already on the battlfield, tearing open the middle of the Limo as it did so. Police officers in full riot gear, armed with assault rifles, shotguns, and anti-material rifles swarmed out of the other vehicles and began moving in efficient organized chaos forwards towards where American Marines and Malaysian Royal Army soldiers had already taken up positions behind cover provided by derelict vehicles and torn-up road surface.

Most of the Senshi, their running speed and endurance enhanced by their magical transformations, moved up with predesignated officers escorting them, Natsuna amongst their midst, while Jupiter sprinted out ahead to engage the more powerful Youma and Dark Generals directly.

Overhead, gunships were approaching as American soldiers on the ground began relaying the locations of recently-arrived enemy officers, while fixed-wing aircraft began approaching for another bombing pass, the _Forrestal_ continuing to launch more ground-assault equipped F-18's. All told, literally hundreds of tons of firepower were being vectored towards the largest focus of conflict in the city.

((()))

Nephrite and Zoicite, Dark Generals both, and Shittenou long before Metallia had appeared and seized their allegiance, had both fought giant monsters before, Zoicite had once even fought an enlarged Lion. Both knew well enough to raise shields of greater than normal power, allow their minions to screen for them, and _never_ hold a blow back, because predators only respected _strength_ (or the appearance thereof).

Zoicite, swept into a rage at seeing the enormous machine-cat descending towards him, avatar of what had slain his closest friend, immediately cast his most powerful shield, and began gathering his magic for the most powerful offensive spell he knew how to cast. Nephrite, being of clearer frame of mind than Zoicite, realized the implications of the cat being forged of steel rather than flesh, and rather than raise a defense, snapped out a short range teleport to the top of the wall that the bear-mage had created earlier during the battle.

The cat came crashing down on Zoicite's shield of shadow like a steel avalanche; the shield, being a magical construct fully capable of twisting the laws of inertia like a pretzel in spite of having no tangible mass, cracked, but didn't even come close to buckling under the strain.

"Housenka!" Zoicite barked, and a quartet of Youma leapt over the wall, immediately attacking the massive cat-machine, launching a barrage of fireballs, thorns, concussive blasts, and knives.

The cat leapt over the barrage, evading all but the most the very edge of one of the concussion blasts, and lashed out with one of its massive armored paws as it soared over Zoicite, its paw moving faster than the Dark General could track, sweeping inside of his shield and mercilessly smashing into his side. Shock erupted across Zoicite's face as a strangled gasp was forced from his throat, crushed ribs weighing down on his lungs. The shock only lasted for an instant, however, before rage supplanted the shock, and Zoicite continued to focus on the magical energy he had gathered.

One of the Doom and Gloom girls broke away from the furious engagement around the werewolf to attempt an attack at the mecha-cat's joints; it was blocked by a contemptuous flick of the machine's tail. The quartet of Youma strikers that Zoicite had summoned moved with smooth efficiency, three of them attempting to pressure the cat, while the fourth moved to retrieve their wounded commander; Nephrite took the opportunity to add a layer of shadowed armor of his flesh, not willing to lay his trust in shielding spells as Zoicite had.

The mechanized feline turned its back to them all, the grossly massive scale of its movements allowing it to evade their attacks with only a modicum of effort, as it instead turned its attention to the Doom and Gloom girls still harassing the werewolf. Another powerful leap brought it easily to their altitude, and a single slash with glowing claws lashed out at all of them. The glowing blades of energy that leapt from its steel claws only managed to even clip one of them, though it forced the others to focus on it, a critical distraction which allowed the Bear-Mage to incinerate two more of them inside of a conjured column of intense flame. Their numbers diminished and initiative lost, the Doom and Gloom girls fell back to the top of the wall, where Nephrite and three of Zoicite's summoned minions still stood.

Both sides took the moment of separation to form up with their allies, the Youma forming a cordon around the Dark Generals, the bear and the werewolf standing at the steel feline's flanks. For just under six seconds, the two forces sized each other up; then Zoicite unleashed the spell he had been preparing since Jaeger's avatar had stepped onto the battlefield, less than half a minute prior.

An intense bolt of raw Un-Being lashed out from Zoicite's magically charged hands, tearing the very fabric of reality as it augured through the air towards the steel avatar. Reacting with supernatural speed, the feline titan seized its allies by the scruff of their furry necks, and the approaching Senshi Jupiter with its tail, and leapt backwards, allowing the concentrated beam of annihilation to tear yards-deep hole into the asphalt it had been standing over when Zoicite had moved to release the spell.

Then the first wave of fighter-bombers dropped its payload.

((()))

Beryl watched, a cold fury held rigid upon her face, as a shattering wave of explosions washed across the the position of her most powerful subjects, leaving only broken and shattered bodies behind. The traitorous rebels (free spirits) were not content to leave it at that, however, and two more waves of explosives deployed by flying machines washed over the stone wall they had stood on and above, reducing it to rubble, and what remained of her loyal subjects (unwilling thralls) to so much charred ash.

"It seems that nothing may yet be accomplished," She uttered, her voice as frigid as a glacier, "Save that which I accomplish myself."

So saying, she disappeared from the small clearing where she had been keeping watch, dragging the comatose form of the Boxer with her.

((()))

Nephrite stood, fighting off the shakes as he stared at what had become of his position just seconds before. He had known that despite their lack of magic, the humans of the day had possessed _powerful_ weapons, but he had not, until that moment, realized just _how_ powerful. Certainly magic possessed vastly more potent spells, _many_ of which he could cast himself, but he had seen that each of the flying machines had dropped, at most, a third of the bulbous devices attached to the underside of their wings, and there were _dozens_ of them in the air.

And for all of the power and endurance that represented, it was only the force allocated to a single _island_, even if it was a large one, to say nothing of what forces would oppose them if they attempted to assail an entire continent. Nephrite was glad that he had forced himself away from the imperative to confront and overwhelm the enemy directly, a 'strategy' that lacked any subtlety or actual _strategy_ at all, in fact, it was almost as if-

Something in Nephrite's mind cracked, and his face twisted into a rictus of fury.

((()))

Beryl arrived on the battlefield, floating gracefully over the shattered ruins of the positions her subordinates had held just a minute ago, and cast a single spell.

The sky, already overcast from the progressing eclipse, was suddenly blotted out by pitch-black clouds, hovering less than a hundred feet above the city, and for a handful of terrible, horrifyingly brief moments, a caustic black rain erupted from them, raining down on everything within a kilometer radius of the Queen of the Dark Kingdom.

And everything that the rain touched, began to dissolve. Soldiers and police officers attempted to take cover beneath or within cars. Those within were saved for only a handful of seconds before the un-making rain chewed through the thin sheet metal and devoured their flesh as well; some of those beneath survived, though few did so unscathed. Revy ducked beneath an overturned section of asphalt, which protected her from the acid, but then collapsed on her, trapping her in place.

Natsuna was caught out in the open, away from any cover, and found herself buried in ferociously loyal subordinates, who literally protected her life with their own, half a dozen dying so that she would live, albeit covered in the horrendous slurry of melted flesh that remained of them. The massive armored form that Urawa Ryo had taken when his jewel shard was drawn forth hurled itself atop the four Senshi he stood with before Beryl had even completed the spell, his precognition allowing him to save the lives of not only the Senshi, but the half-dozen men who'd been assigned to escort and protect them. It didn't allow him to save himself as well, as more than half his body was liquefied by the attack, ironically being the only reason his corpse was light enough, after the rain passed, for those he'd protected to shove it off of themselves.

Makot, Cait, and Lyn leapt beneath Jaeger's massive armored puppet, sheltered from the rain by its immense armored bulk, though little of the armor along its dorsal surfaces was left by the time the rain passed, and its face was a ruined mess of half-melted steel. Several joints nearly locked up, before application of brute force tore runnels of melted and re-solidified steel out of the gaps they'd lodged into, costing Jaeger some of his fine control over the construct in exchange for remaining functional at all.

The worst off though, were the aircraft; between their thin armor and the delicate nature of their engines and control mechanisms, the six gunships, two transports, and three fixed-wing aircraft that were within the radius of Beryl's spell when it took effect all lost control and crashed. More than half of those aboard them died instantly, and most of the survivors suffered serious injury.

"**It would appear,**" Beryl announced, her supernaturally empowered voice echoing across the highway, while the pitch-black clouds disappeared as quickly as they'd come, "**That I have nothing but imbeciles and incompetents for subordinates, and that I will need to attend to this affair myself**."

The steel predator roared again, though the sound was distorted by the damage to its' muzzle and neck, and leapt towards Beryl, but she simply disappeared.

"Where is she?" Natsuna shouted, her face taut with pain and tears streaking her makeup as she shouldered her way out from the mess of half-melted corpses she'd been buried under, "Hino, take Urawa's shard and run for Jaeger!"

Rei, no less shocked than the other Senshi by Ryo's abrupt death directly in front of them, and the many other deaths they did not have their faces (literally) shoved into, but more emotionally numb to it due to her own recent personal losses, staggered to obey. She thrust her gloved fist into what remained of the Ryo's Youma form and tore the jewel free, then staggered away from the corpse, moving awkwardly towards Jaeger's armored mecha.

Jaeger turned to advance towards her as well, unwilling to risk jumping the distance with much of his fine control lost, and half the articulated joints of his prehensile proxy tail seizing up intermittently, but between the two of them they'd barely covered half the distance before Beryl returned in a flash of not-light, the other jewels already clenched within one of her hands. She appeared directly in front of Rei, who snarled hatred at the woman, raising a clenched fist instinctively to attack, before Beryl burned half of her face off with a beam of shadowy destruction.

Screaming wetly, Rei dropped the jewel she carried and clutched at her face; an idle gesture from Beryl calling the dropped gem to her hand as the Dark Queen studied the thrashing Senshi.

"**There**," She said, before casually ramming a glowing claw into the fire Senshi's chest, tearing into the girl's ribcage, but more important to her own interests, retrieving the rainbow jewel that had rested on within a locket against her chest, "**And that is seven.**"

A multi-ton paw slammed down onto the Dark Queen, but she paid little attention to it beyond raising a shield with a casual gesture, as she studied the jewels within her hand. Cait, Lyn, and Makoto all rushed to attack the Dark Queen, but functioned as little more than minor distractions, as she effortlessly directed her shield to deflect each attack, summoning a second when they flanked her. A small spattering of weapons fire began to flow forth from the surviving soldiers and police officers, as others tried to drag their (more heavily) wounded comrades away, and Natsuna stalked towards Beryl, furious murder in her eyes.

"**Tch**," The Dark Queen declared as she eyed those around her with distaste, "**Too distracting**."

Then she cast her _second_ major spell of the day, and an enormous sphere of absolute darkness leapt into being directly above her, immediately sucking everything around it save the Queen herself into its blind depths much as though it were a black hole. Cait and Lyn both immediately identified it as a Sphere of Annihilation, one _fifty meters across_, large enough that its shadow completely enveloped Jaeger's mechanoid cat, which was busy anchoring its claws to the asphalt beneath it.

A keening wail began to sound across the city, as everything within_ three kilometers_ was affected by its pull, the air itself screaming as it was devoured by the sphere of anti-existence. Cars began to skid along the surface of the road, bodies of both the dead and living were sucked into the air, Youma and human alike, while those aircraft not already downed by Beryl's earlier spell were dragged off course as pilots struggled to compensate for the abrupt gale-force winds.

Directly beneath the sphere, Jaeger struggled desperately to keep his steel combat puppet from being torn into the air, while Cait and Lyn both anchored themselves to the mecha's forelegs. Makoto chose a much more direct rout, hurling herself towards Beryl directly, intending to grapple with the Dark Queen and force her to end the devastating spell. To Beryl's considerable shock, the most physical of the Senshi managed to twist far enough around the woman's shadowy shield to seize the redhead by the collar of her elaborate dress.

"TURN IT OFF!" Makoto screamed, as the utterly unprepared Beryl soon found herself completely pinned by the enraged Senshi.

"**Unhand me you wretch!**" Beryl shouted, "**I'll de**-"

Further words were cut off by Makoto slamming her forehead down on the other woman's head, knocking Beryl silly for a moment, though the sphere of destruction remained, and began to drag the pair of them up towards it, bodies, cars, trees, and dirt, all disappearing within, even as Jaeger's mech was finally torn from the asphalt. Rei, already dying from the wounds Beryl had inflicted on her, was smashed into the surface of the sphere, and though her mantle protected her from instant disintegration, she cried out in pain as the destructive magics sought to un-make her. The other three Senshi were among those unable to retain a grip on the earth, and were rapidly being dragged through the air towards the sphere; amongst them, only Minako had retained the presence of mind to prepare a combat spell as they closed.

Makoto, however, had much more decisive options available to her, and effortlessly twisted around as they rose through the air, angling so that Beryls would slam, face-first, into the Void of destruction _first_, in the hope that her death would end the spell. Beryl thrashed wildly, but was unable to break free, and screamed as her own destructive spell began tearing at her face, seeping through even the intense magical protection she raised to defend herself. A second voice screamed along with her, deeper, broader, _wrong_, and the very sound of it tore at the ears of everyone within the entire city, even through the keening wail of air being sucked into the void.

Jaeger's combat platform slammed into the sphere just over a second before Beryl finally abandoned the spell, more of its mass being torn away by the contact, but both its 'pilot' and those clinging to its limbs were protected from destruction. Makoto was the last to feel the sphere's wrath, Beryl's thrashing tumbling her onto her side, where the sphere tore away most of her hair, and much of the skin on her right shoulder, arm, and leg, taking some of the muscle with it. The sphere disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared, gone in an instant, and all those carried to it immediately dropped to the Earth, a hastily-cast spell by Lyn saving Makoto, Cait, and herself from the full force of impact, though the Senshi of Jupiter still screamed in pain when she tried to stand back up on her maimed leg.

The sheer drop would have killed Minako, Ami, and Usagi if not for the magical armor infusing their bodies; as it was Usagi broke a leg, and all three were stunned by their impact with the asphalt beneath them. Cars raining down all around them did nothing to aid their recovery, and only a quick spell from Minako kept one from tumbling down directly atop them as they struggled to regain their wits.

Revy, the only surviving non-magical combatant within a hundred yards of where Beryl fell, found herself granted an open line of fire to the Dark Queen, and even though the collapsed chunk of asphalt pinning her in place made it difficult, managed to open fire with one of her Beretta's. Shadowy shields flickered to life around the fallen form of the Dark Queen, absorbing the bullets, and Revy cursed violently, before reloading and continuing to fire anyways.

Cait lunged for Beryl as soon as she hit the ground, but a pair of energy bolts swatted her down before she could reach the downed queen, nearly cutting off her legs and crippling her ability to close effectively. Lyn, the only other combatant still on her feet, had seized Rei's mutilated form, and was desperately trying to ply the tormented young woman with healing spells.

A mere twenty yards from where Beryl struggled to her feet, Jaeger's war machine crashed to the ground.

((()))

_A number of control lines have been cut, and the right rear leg is completely non-responsive. Enough armor and machinery has been stripped from my mech's dorsal structure that I myself have become exposed for the first time in this battle, but for all of that, I remain the most capable combatant on the field, and the sole meaningful foe remaining is just two steps away._

_I am tired though. While the steel skin of this combat 'puppet' I build is not my flesh, it _was_ soaked in my blood, and it was infused with my Ki when it was destroyed, inflicting a form of pain that goes beyond the mere physical. Hundreds, possibly thousands are dead around us, lives I could not protect in spite of everything that I did, despite the advantage that fighting under a shrouded sun grants me._

_I am tired of being unable to speak._

_I am tired of being a damn _cat_, when I was born a man._

_One step away._

_I am tired of the curses that stripped me of the power I held a year ago, the power to defeat heroes of legend, and have utterly crippled my attempts to rebuild that power._

_I am tired of needing to twist my shape into a false form constructed purely of Ki in order to have _hands_, and opposable thumbs._

_And now I stand over my fallen, but not _defeated_ foe, staring at her through the only functioning optical relay remaining as she struggles to her feet and glares up at me. I pray for strength, rear my paw back to strike, the combat mech's much larger appendage mimicking my movement, and for the second time in my life I feel a direct, forceful premonition, one that says I_ must not strike.

_Even before I was stuffed into the body of a cat, I have long been one to instinctively go for the throat. Find the most lethally effective path to victory, the best 'Win' button, and mash it repeatedly until all opposition is absolutely crushed. But a deeper conviction guides me, I _am_ a man (even trapped in the body of a cat) who serves a Lord, and I have received guidance like this once before, in a manner that was of major importance to my life, even if it was less so._

_So I hesitate. I wait, I silently ask, 'Why Lord? What am I to do instead?'_

_Then in my moment of distraction, Beryl unleashes another spell that cores my mech, and it collapses _around_ me as 80% of my remaining control runs are severed._

((()))

Minako lashed out at Beryl with a spell, but even with one hand using her hair to conceal the ruins of her face, the woman deflected it with contemptuous ease, and sent a set of shadowy bonds out to pin the younger girl down. Another lance of destructive shadow-energy followed soon after, but Ami had already reached out and dragged the struggling girl behind one of the ruined cars, and Beryl was forced to pay attention to more immediate threats.

Makoto lunged towards her awkwardly, having hopped over on one leg, as her other was not fit to bear her weight; a second set of bonds downed the Senshi of Jupiter, causing her to tumble into the crater Jaeger's mech had created in the street when it had landed. Beryl's attention turned towards the crippled Werewolf not far from her, just in time to see it sink into the suddenly-permeable surface of the road; a swift glance revealed Lyn, the only other active spellcaster on the field, doing likewise with Mars' sedated body, glaring balefully at the woman as she did so.

All immediate threats dealt with, Beryl swept blood out of her eyes, though the ruined mess of her forehead made it a temporary measure at best, then turned her attention to purpose behind the entire battle, the seven rainbow jewels within her palm.

And found that she could do nothing with them. They all lay together, literally within her grasp, but pressing them together accomplished nothing, and no spell that she knew (was allowed to know) could rejoin them again. It was utterly impossible; all of her ability with spells of destruction, corruption, domination, and control, none of them was capable of _restoring_ what Serenity had rent asunder long millenia past.

Something within her snarled with infuriated rage, and then with a sensation like a vast pressure she had not been consciously aware of, her mind _changed_.

((()))

Hostiles and friendlies were too close together for the pilots and gunnery officers to deploy munitions, but air assets from the US Navy, the small Japense detachment, and at long last the Royal Malasyian air force were all close enough to clearly see the immense form of shadow and... _wrongness_ that erupted from Beryl's body to hover over the ruined stretch of the Jalan highway. At first, it was much as a column of smoke, ascending, expanding, dark and ominous, but after a handful of seconds, it solidified into a writhing mass of eyes, mouths, teeth, and clawed limbs.

Reports and requests for orders were relayed back to officers with operational command authority, and more severe measures for dealing with the situation began being considered.

((()))

Ami was trying very hard not to hyperventilate. Beside her, Usagi was futilely trying to help Minako free of the shadowy cords that restrained her, while crying and muttering about how she wished everything was normal again, and that people would stop dying, stop _being dead_, and that her mother were there, and-

Ami shook her head, and forced herself to creep upward and look over the edge of the car she was hiding behind, up at the massive twisted _wrongness_ that had emerged from Beryl's body, and at the maimed Queen of the Dark Kingdom herself, who looked to be a single light breeze away from collapsing. She knew she needed to do something to help, she knew there was something she _could_ do to help, but the only two spells she knew how to cast were a fog spell, and a powerful repair spell, neither of which she expected to accomplish anything against Beryl, much less eldritch abomination which now hovered overhead.

Then her eyes zeroed in on the collapsed mecha that her cat had been piloting through the battle, and she realized why Ryo had told her to learn the repair spell. It would take her a _long_ time to gather enough magical energy to cast it to such a powerful purpose, but she _could_. And so, Ami Mizuno, Senshi of Mercury, set herself about contributing the only way she knew how, and in the process, was able to overcome her panic.

((()))

For the first time in literally thousands of years, Beryl's mind was _free_. Her _body_ was free, and for a moment, she marveled in the simple ability to make her fingers and arms respond to her own commands rather than the whims of another. The pain across her face and side were unfortunate, but she had _already_ been aware of those, and she would consider them a small price to pay for her freedom.

Then she looked up, and beheld both the destruction around her, and the being that floated above her; the small flicker of hope that had sprung to life in her heart collapsed instantly.

"_**YOU KNOW THE SPELL**_," Metallia spoke from many voices, and the mind of everyone who heard it screamed in protest. "_**YOU HAVE THE SKILL. REFORGE THE GINZUISHO.**_"

Beryl cringed, feeling an utter despair as she realized that she had simply exchanged direct control for indirect control.

"ATTENTION!" A voice suddenly interjected, drawing the shocked attention of everyone remaining on the battlefield coherent enough to notice, "ELDRITCH ENTITY, AS YOU ARE AN UNLAWFUL IMMIGRANT OF THIS WORLD, AND IMPLICATED IN MANY FELONY CRIMES, I AM PLACING YOU UNDER ARREST."

Natsuna Sakurada, covered in gore, grime, and an aura of absolute resolve, strode towards Beryl and Metallia, megaphone in hand.

"IF YOU SURRENDER YOURSELF," Sakurada continued, "YOU MAY FIND LENI-URK!"

She was cut off by a clawed limb extending down from the horror above her, and spearing her through the abdomen.

"_**CAST THE SPELL**_," Metallia continued, "_**OR YOU WILL BE NEXT.**_**"**

Beryl trembled as she felt the full weight of her long-time master turn onto her.

"ASSAULTING AN OFFICER OF THE LAW," Natsuna continued, _no trace whatsoever_ of pain in her voice as she fired on the limb that had impaled her, "IS ANOTHER FELONY OFFENSE. IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER, YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF FACING THE DEATH-"

A second limb lanced out to take Natsuna through the throat, but she intercepted it with the megaphone; the device was destroyed, but the woman survived, and turned her attention to reloading.

"HEY!" Revy shouted, grunting as she finally managed to pull more ammunition free from the half of her belt trapped beneath the rubble, "YOU BIG ! #$ER UP IN THE SKY, DIDN'T YOU HEAR THE POLICE BITCH?"

Revy coughed as she reloaded, splattering blood on the clip; Metallia sent a limb down to skewere the trapped mercenary as well, but Revy was faster, and a torrent of bloody bullets shattered the claws at the end of the limb, and she _punched_ the end of it away from her as the mangled ruin closed, causing it to slam into the asphalt beside her instead. Metallia sent more limbs after the gunwoman, but its first failed attempt had knocked enough detritus off of Revy that she was able to roll free. A manic glee entered her eyes, and she charged towards where Natsuna was still struggling, drawing a knife in her off hand and bloody mutilation on her mind.

"_**You have seen such things before,**_**"** Metallia boomed, "_**I crushed the Moon Kingdom, and I will crush these mortals as well. Now CAST THE SPELL**_**."**

"No," Beryl rasped weakly, her voice rough with pain, but her eyes full of defiance, "If my death is what it takes to see you finally waste away to nothing, then I will die."

"_**So be it**_**,**" Metallia declared, readying another limb to rain down upon its former host, when several things rather abruptly..

((()))

"_Es!_," Ami declared quietly under her breath, the final word of the repair spell, and launched the carefully-constructed lattice of magical energy towards where Jaeger was struggling out of the ruins of his war machine.

((()))

_In a flurry of motion that took just under a second, every component that lay ruined about me, every shred of armor and machinery that lay scattered about the battlefield (and some that didn't), all leapt back into position, and rejoined as they were meant to be, including my control harness, which pulled me back into the command capsule._

_The premonition, the voice-that-was-not-a-voice, the subtle divine command changed._

'Now'_ it said, and I struck._

((()))

Beryl saw a clawed, seven-jointed limb with an eyeball in the palm of its 'hand' descend towards her, death coming to take her away. Then a steel cat weighing hundreds of tons slammed into Metallia's eldritch form, and it was torn away from her. For a handful of seconds, Beryl's bewildered eyes locked onto the horror and the cat, as otherworldly screams of pain and outrage mixed with the machine's subtly metallic roars of challenge.

Then her eyes snapped down to the rainbow jewels clutched in her hand, and she realized something. As magically sensitive a she was, she did not need to _look_ to know where the spell that had restored Jaeger's avatar of war had come from, she had _felt_ it. A furious, _desperate_ hope rose within her, and contrary to what she had said just seconds before, she cast the spell that Metallia had demanded of her, straining her mind, magic, and body in haste to complete it before the abomination could break free of the warrior attacking it.

Three seconds of intense magical reconstruction later, the fully-restored Ginzuisho rested within her palm, and she turned to where the three intact Senshi lay, hurling it towards them.

"GIVE IT TO SERENITY!" She roared, and to hear her, none would have understood the deep personal hatred the woman had once born towards the heir to the Crystal Throne.

((()))

Ami, reflexes enhanced by her Senshi mantle, caught the deftly thrown gem, stumbled for a moment as her academic's mind tried to keep up with the rapidly changing battlefield, before twisting around and thrusting the gem towards Usagi.

"Use it!" She shouted desperately, "Use it to make all of this stop!"

Usagi, startled by the scintillating gem thrust into her face, instinctively reached up and grasped what had been proffered to her, the foremost, _desperate_ thought and wish in her mind being thus:

_I wish nobody had died, I wish everything was _normal_ again._

A blindingly bright pure white light erupted from the Ginzuisho.

((()))

"The _hell_ is that?" The _Forrestal's_ captain shouted, staring as brilliant white light erupted from the city fifteen miles to the Southeast, expanding into a dome which rapidly began to consume the city.

"Hell if I know," His XO said, eyes widening as the dome's spread accelerated, rapidly spreading into the water, _directly towards them_, "But I'm thinking-"

He was cut off as the dome washed over the fleet, and he was far from the first or the last, as the dome of light propagated across the entire _planet_, altering everything it touched, some things in subtle ways, some in ways far more blatant.

When it the wall of light had fully encompassed the globe, it faded, and once it had fully gone, there was no trace of Metallia in Kota Kinabalu, nor any trace of the damage the battle had wrought upon the city.

((()))

Epilogue for first arc:

((()))

Kota Kinabalu was enjoying an unexpected influx of tourism at the end of October; a cruise liner with literally thousands of people happy to spend money in the Malaysian city had just docked earlier that day, and the passengers were already beginning to filter into the city. If the customs agents had looked a little more closely at the paperwork of the lion's share of the 'tourists,' they might have noticed something a bit _strange_ about it, but given that the first passenger off the dock had been the recently-famous Natsuna Sakurada, head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, nobody was feeling particularly suspicious.

Sakurada was famous, of course, for resolving the bombing case centered around the Hikawa Shrine (which fortunately had been empty during the bombing, the proprietors out due to renovations), and capturing the strange, rambling blonde foreigner responsible without any fatalities, despite the language barrier. It had made her into a national hero, as well as garnering her some international renown as few officials at her level personally visited crime scenes in progress, and the Diet had rewarded her with an all-expenses-paid vacation as a result.

To those who knew the woman, it had come as no great surprise when she had invited the families who had been trapped on-scene during her negotiations with the incoherent foreigner along with, for 'therapeutic recreation,' paid for out of her own pocket. Sakurada herself, accompanied by every civilian who'd been at the final potential bombsite where she'd talked things down, from the Anglican Vicar to a local doctor and her daughter to a reporter and his family, had been first off the ship, and down to the beach, just in time for the unveiling of a massive new steel machine-themed cat statue.

None of the tourists were quite sure _why _the city had decided to build such a statue, but it certainly was impressive, and the children thought it was cool, so they were hardly going to complain, even if it was a bit confusing. A pair of Americans, a middle-aged doctor and her adopted daughter, also on vacation, seemed to find the statue amusing, which further confused a number of the onlookers.

None of them however, were quite as confused as the Mizuno family cat, which had only one thought on its mind: _'Why the _hell_ do I have paws?'_

((()))

AN: And that's a wrap for the first plot arc of the Dungeon Crawler in the Sailor Moon setting. I'll be posting updates over on SpaceBattles as I write them, but you most likely won't see more here until the arc is completed, at which point I'll aim at posting it weekly until it's all up. Some other writers on SB have actually been inspired to start their own Dungeon Crawler stories over there as well; you may wish to pop in and have a look.


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